Out of the Inferno
by littlegirlwarrior
Summary: When Ember Jinx joined the ranks of the Eye, she embraced the idea of a dangerously heroic life with her fellow magicians. Eighteen months later, though, she's working in a coffee shop as Emily Jacobs just to come home to an empty apartment. However, when the Horsemen finally break cover for a show, they discover a new enemy hiding behind the curtain. Time to fight fire with fire!
1. Chapter 1

**Hello Fanfiction! Tell me who you love!**  
 ***** _crickets chirping_ *****  
 **Oh come on, it worked for Ember McClain on Danny Phantom! At least until he broke her trance over the audience and sucked her into the Fenton thermos...okay bad example for this particular fandom.**  
 **Anyway, I've got two and a half weeks before school starts, a DVD copy of Now You See Me 2, a brain that is teeming with new ideas, and a heart that is aching for some Jember fluff so let's kick this into high gear! Big thanks to reviewers 97, 98, 99, and 100! Also known as Blindluck92 (btw big bro, anything said about this story during our phone conversations falls underneath sibling confidentiality...riiight?), AvidMovieFan16 (I promise all three ladies will be in this story), Quicksilver'sMarvel (I read your review like four times cuz it made me so happy :D), and Dukskka Ivalice (I didn't even realize I'd made a Barbie reference, where was it?)! **

**However, don't go thinking I forgot about my lovely new followers (Verona1700, ItsJustABook, Cat121395, FashionQueen102, Someone. Something. Different, ameliemallette1, sydneygreaves38, FlamingPhoenix112) and my beautiful new favoriters (Inj3ctingFandoms, Hammondc97, SouthernRadiantSun, Cat121395, dimmick96, FashionQueen102, BookKeeper88, JupiterMikaelSon, RoseAmeliaSarahNoblePond, makennamac, RoseShadow27900, lash1611, Emerald Anime, ameliemallette1, daii16, The-Procrastination-Station, sydneygreaves381, FlamingPhoenix112)!**

 **Disclaimer: If I owned this story, there'd be no need to introduce Lula May because the Horsemen would already have Ember Jinx to fall back on**

 _*September 16, New York City, New York*_

It was a dark and quiet night - or at least as dark and quiet as it could be in an abandoned alley in the Lower West Side - and the only activity came from outside a foreclosed warehouse.

"It's all in the wrist," Jack Wilder stated in a relaxed tone as he flung a card straight through the broken windows of a rust-coated Oldsmobile.

"Uh huh," Merritt McKinney replied robotically as he adjusted his fedora over his smooth hairless head, his piercing silver eyes dull from boredom.

"Let the momentum of the card do the work for you." Another card soared through the air as if by magic.

"Mhmm."

"This last one I call The Stall." Jack flipped the card from the deck behind his back, over his leather-clad shoulder, and into his expectant hand, not wasting a second before he flicked the card through the car and watching it land flawlessly on the trunk, which caused his hazel eyes to light up with pride.

Merritt whistled in appreciation. "Not bad. Now you wanna see a thing of beauty?"

"I do, indeed," Jack answered with an amused grin.

"Here you go." Merritt wound up his arm, busting with confidence and ready to show off his skills. "And bingo bango bongo!" The card went up in the air...and then fluttered to the wet asphalt almost lifelessly.

Jack pressed his lips together to hold back his laughter as he nodded supportively. "That's good! No, no, no, it's good to be positive despite making zero progress in a year."

"Yeah," Merritt acknowledged with a toothy grin because it didn't take a mind-reader to know he knew where this conversation was heading.

"Whereas when it comes to hypnotism, the student has almost become the master," the pickpocket replied cockily.

"I like your confidence," the mentalist interjected, "but you might say that you have the better teacher."

"Ooh! You know you're right, you're right. Your teacher doesn't know what he's doing," Jack chirped as he popped card after card straight from the deck in his hand. Suddenly, without even looking down, the brown-haired boy snatched one of the cards midair and held it up for his companion. "By the way, was this your card yesterday?"

The balding magician stared at the Ace of Spades with a combination of disbelief and submission. "In fact it was."

"I thought so."  
Jack then flung that ace with a little extra power so it flew straight through the car and landed on the ground just as a motorcycle drove into the alley. The sleight-of-hand clapped Merritt in the chest excitedly.  
"If I can hypnotize Danny before you hit him with a card, I get top bunk for a week."

"Okay, that's a deal," the psychic agreed without hesitation.

The motorcyclist removed his helmet to reveal the face of illusionist J. Daniel Atlas. He had buzzed his long boy-band hairstyle and he had a little scruff on his face, but his icy blue eyes and frigid demeanor remained unchanged.

"Danny! What's up, man?" Jack greeted eagerly as he stuck out his hand.

"Hey," Daniel muttered almost dismissively, maintaining his purposeful stride until Jack grabbed his wrist, jerked him to a stop, and tried once again to hypnotize a fellow Horseman.

"Stare at the palm of your hand and as your eyes change focus, you will begin to notice-"

"Everything, because I'm not hypnotized. It's not working, please don't become him," Daniel spoke up, interrupting Jack's rapid-fire recitation with rapid-fire rejection before aiming a stink-eye at Merritt.  
Jack's shoulders sagged in disappointment, but he and Merritt let it roll off their backs as they followed Daniel toward the side entrance of the warehouse.  
"I didn't know you guys did party tricks when there weren't floozies to impress," Daniel retorted, completely unfazed by Jack's attempts at hypnosis.

"Jarvis Daniel Atlas, I certainly hope you weren't referring to me," a familiar Irish brogue purred from the shadowy alley. The three men spun around and were met by a puff of smoke.

"Oh look, a smoke cloud!" Daniel exclaimed sarcastically in between coughs. "I wonder who's about to appear right in front of us!"

"Who said anything about in front of you?"

The three magicians spun around again to find a young woman with dark blue eyes and an impish grin casually perched on the trunk of the broken down car as she twirled a Jack of Hearts between her fingers.  
"Now, I can't speak for Merritt, but as far as I know, Jackie here stopped trying to impress floozies over a year ago."

"One year, six months, two weeks, and a day to be exact," Jack replied, dazed by a combination of the smoke in his eyes and the sight of his beautiful girlfriend in her ripped skinny jeans; her brown heeled lace-up ankle boots; her cropped black tank top; and her open white button-down shirt...actually his white button-down shirt, if he wasn't mistaken.

"Well I can speak for Merritt," the hypnotist interrupted, "and I think Merritt - and all men - stopped trying to impress floozies in, like, 1937."

Daniel rolled his eyes petulantly. "Moving on," the illusionist said in a loud voice as he took a step toward the entrance to the warehouse. "By the way, Ember, bangs? I hope you asked your overpriced stylist for a refund."

The pyrotechnician pouted as she self-consciously ran her fingers through her straightened dirty blonde ponytail. Ever since they eluded the FBI at their last performance, the Horsemen's handler Dylan Rhodes recommended that the magicians make an effort to keep people from recognizing them. For a young attractive woman like Ember, that mainly required taming and staining her platinum blonde curls on a regular basis. However, Jack refused to allow his girlfriend feel anything less than beautiful.

"Come here, you!" Jack spoke up as he picked Ember up off the car. "I think you look gorgeous. The bangs really bring attention to those sparkling eyes of yours."

Ember smiled brightly before wrapping her arms around the back of her boyfriend's neck and placing a tender kiss on his lips.

"NOW, LOVEBIRDS!" Daniel's voice echoed from inside the building.  
Ember and Jack scurried after their companions.  
"Okay, someone broke into my apartment, alright. Some amateur who knew everything about me, everything about Henley leaving, and everything about us," Daniel explained as they proceeded down the mazelike hallway. All of a sudden, the illusionist stopped short at the balcony into the main room. "That's her!"

"Hey!" a brunette girl called out enthusiastically from her seat on the table in the middle of the room...with FBI double agent Dylan standing right beside her.

"Hi," Daniel replied much less enthusiastically.

"You met Lula?" Dylan said unsurely, not even bothering to greet the other Horsemen.

"I've met her," Daniel confirmed with a nod. "What is she doing here?"

"I'm the new Horseman!" Lula announced in a dramatic fashion. "I'm the girl Horseman! Woo!"  
The girl pumped her arms in the air in an attempt to stir a reaction, but the four magicians were stunned into silence. In fact, if you listened closely, you could almost hear crickets chirping.  
"Yeah!...Nothing? No excitement? Jack, anything?"

The sight of this amateur singling out her boyfriend snapped Ember out of her speechless stupor.  
"Um, excuse me, but we already have 'the girl Horseman'," the fire-dancer replied curtly, her arms crossed over her chest and her blue eyes narrowed in cynicism.

"Dylan...tell me what's going on here?" Merritt inquired in a calm yet tense voice as he proceeded down the staircase into the main room with the other three Horsemen following along.

"Well, Lula's been on the underground scene for the last decade, and I-I think she has some real talent and I'd like to try her on stage to balance out the trio," the scruffy suit explained.

Once they got downstairs, Ember was able to get a closer look at this so-called new Horseman. She had bright green eyes, dark brown waves that stopped right at her shoulders, and fair skin with long limbs. All in all, Lula looked like a fun and friendly girl...but there was something about her that just rubbed Ember the wrong way.

"What?!" Jack exclaimed with a mixture of devastation and envy. "N-No, are you serious, man?! A-After Henley left, y-you said I could get back on stage again, not someone who just showed up!"

"I told you I'd think about it, and I have," Dylan corrected as he place a hand on Jack's shoulder in an almost patronizing manner, "and I really need you behind the scenes with me for a little while longer."

"Dylan, come on! I've been behind the scenes my whole life!" the pickpocket insisted.

"Which is a crime, might I add!" Lula piped up. "Have you seen that man's face?"

"Oi! New girl!" Ember jumped in, blocking Lula's view of Jack. "You won't be seeing much of anything if you don't stop ogling my boyfriend!"

"Ooh I'm so scared!" Lula responded in a goofy voice. "Whatcha gonna do?! You gonna pluck out my eyes?! Go ahead! In fact, I'll do it for you!"  
Then, the shock artist reached up and literally pulled one of her eyes out of its socket. Dylan smirked and Daniel rolled his eyes, but the other three Horsemen who had yet to learn about Lula's...specialty had to basically pick their jaws up off the floor.  
"Gah! I'm blind, I'm blind!" the brunette moaned melodramatically as she clutched her face. Suddenly, she started laughing hysterically and her supposedly empty socket cracked open to reveal her actual eye, which was hidden behind stage makeup and fake skin.  
"Here ya go!" Lula chirped, casually tossing the phony eyeball to Ember. "Would you like the other one, too?"

Ember scowled, resisting the urge to crush the prop eye in her fist. "Don't tempt me."

Jack gawked at the two girls, trying decide what shocked him more: Lula's tricks or Ember's reaction. He knew Ember was the jealous type, but usually she scared away flirty girls with a withering glare or her razor-sharp tongue. This time, though, she'd let her fiery Irish temper get the better of her.

Even though Merritt loved a good catfight, he chose this moment to diffuse the tension in the room. "Much as I appreciate the addition of some femininity to the group, over and above what Atlas provides-"

"Ahem!" Ember coughed loudly as she whirled around the face the mentalist. "What about me?"

"I'm sorry, but a girl who spends two years trying to convince us she's 'one of the guys' does not exactly qualify as feminine."

Ember huffed in frustration, plopped down on the table next to Daniel, and grumbled something along the lines of, "This coming from the man who has more hats than I have shoes."

"Anyway," Merritt continued, "I think the real issue is we've been in this-"

"Yeah, the issue is that we have been rehearsing for months for something...we don't even know what it is," Daniel argued.

"And you're going to keep working until-" Dylan began.

"Until we work as a single organism," Daniel recited almost automatically before he began to patronize their mentor. "I know, I've heard you say that. The thing is, when you say that, I think what you're referring to is us, you know, not you."

"Listen, I'm getting my orders directly from the Eye, okay?" the dark-haired magician-in-disguise defended. "And then I give them to you. Now, if you don't like that, you're welcome to go."

"No, I'm not going anywhere. But I'm...mm-mm I'm taking care of myself."

"Guys, can I just weigh in here really quickly?" Lula interjected as she turned to address all four of the Horsemen. "Because I think I see what's going on here. You guys are this amazing tight-knit family unit, I'm a new person-"

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Merritt cut in. "We are anything but a family!"

"Okay, well, my mother literally knifed my father in the neck one time," the brunette girl revealed in an almost joking manner, "so you are actually a little bit like my family unit."

"Literally?" Merritt repeated in disbelief.

"Yeah, it was an accident...I think."

"You know, that actually explains a lot," Ember replied. "Thank you for that bit of clarity."

"I know, right?" Lula noted with a grin. "Isn't just amazing how childhood events can define who you are as an adult? Take you for example! You're just, like, so talented with pyrotechnics, so I'm guessing you played with fire as a kid or you were caught in a fire or-"

"Okay!" Jack interrupted in a loud voice as he moved to stand behind Ember, whose fingernails were practically digging into the table and whose vein was pulsing so hard it looked like it was about to pop out of her neck. Jack rested his hands on the blonde's shoulders to calm her down. Needless to say, Ember's motivation behind her career of controlling flames was a bit of a sore subject.  
"So does this mean we're actually going to do something?"

"Yes," Dylan confirmed with a nod.

"Care to elaborate?" Ember questioned in a tight voice.

"You've all heard of Octa and their playboy CEO Owen Case. His partner, Walter Mabry, died about a year ago. You wanna know what all this has been leading to?" Dylan cast a look at Lula.

"Oh now?" The shock artist reached into her black knit poncho, pulled out a roll of blueprints, and spread it out on the table (forcing Daniel and Ember to hop down from there).

"Octa's hosting the launch of the next-gen cell phone. Once these phones hit the streets, they'll siphon their users' information to the black market, meaning Octa's selling privacy to up their profit. So, the Eye has decided to expose them for it. Our mission is to hijack the show."  
The magicians pulled out their flashlights and aimed them on the dark paper...almost like spotlights.  
"Rehearsal's over, guys. This is what we've been waiting for. Now it's time to get to work."  
After Dylan explained the timeline for the next three months, he dismissed the Horsemen...except for Ember.  
"Hold up, Em, I gotta talk to you."

The Irish girl groaned as she looked back toward Jack. "I'll see you tomorrow, baby."

"See you tomorrow," Jack replied before kissing her hand and following the other guys outside.

"What is it Dylan? I've got a double shift at the coffee house tomorrow so I can pay my rent."

"Actually, you won't have to worry about rent anymore," Dylan responded in a suspicious manner. "Because now you'll have a roommate to pay for half of it."

Ember's posture stiffened as she realized the implications of the Fed's statement. "Oh you have got to be kidding me. You have got to be bloody kidding me!"

Dylan sucked in some air between his teeth. "Nope, you and Lula are gonna be living together. It's the best way to get her in sync with the Horsemen style."

"Ooh, I've got an even better idea! How about Lula bunks with Merritt and Jack moves in with me? Everyone's happy!"

"Nice try, Ember, but you know why I can't allow that. Jack is supposed to be dead, and with your looks, you just draw too many eyes. Merritt is a more forgettable face...who can also make people forget via hypnotism."

"Is that really your reasoning?" Ember challenged. "Or are you just bitter because your own forbidden romance with Alma didn't work out?"

That last comment visibly ruffled Dylan's feathers, causing Ember to realize she'd taken it too far.  
"Ember, you would be wise to remember that I have the power to remove you from the Eye. Go with Lula, help her move in, and don't question my authority again."  
And with that, the undercover magician straightened his tie and stalked out of the warehouse without another word.

Ember glared at Dylan's retreating back before finally submitting to her fate. "Come on, newbie."

"Awesome!" Lula cheered as she followed Ember down the corridors. "I just wanna say that I didn't mean to pry with the whole 'childhood trauma' thing and that I'm actually, like, a majorly huge fan of yours and I'm just so-"

The blonde halted mid-step, causing Lula to walk straight into Ember's back. However, Ember didn't fall over or even lose balance. She just spun around to face the shock artist, her eyes hardened like sapphires.  
"Look, if this whole 'roomies' thing is gonna work out, I have three rules."

"Rules? I'm good with rules!" Lula babbled. "I mean, having rules rules, right?"

Ember groaned as she rubbed the bridge of her nose in an attempt to keep her temper under check. Once she felt calmer, she locked eyes with the brunette.  
"Okay, here they are: stay away from my stuff, stay away from Jack...and so help me God, stay away from my bad side."

"Good rules, easy to remember and easy to follow. Oh, by the way, could I have my, uh," Lula chortled in amusement, "my eye back?"

"Thanks for reminding me!" Ember slapped the fake eye into Lula's hand, but when Lula looked down, she saw that the eye had been squished.  
"It was an accident," the Irish girl dismissed with a shrug.

 **Okay so I hope y'all enjoyed that little taste of my take on Now You See Me 2! I know Ember seems a little uncharacteristically cranky, but Lula is a bit of an, um, shall we say acquired taste. And for those of y'all who wanna know more, I'll tell you more because coming up next we're gonna learn what went into that Octa show, what life was like for the Horsemen before Daniel Radcliffe committed five counts of magician-napping, and...what happened to Henley! Dum dum DUUUUM!**

 **Please show me some love by reviewing and (since I've already written half of chapter 2) I'll be seeing y'all again real soon!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Alrighty y'all, before I get to the actual story, I just wanna say how thrilled I am with the positive feedback I've received so far on this! I just can't believe Out of the Inferno has already made its mark on Fanfic users like...**

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 **Reviews:** Blindluck92 **(yeah I thought you'd enjoy that memorable little intro),** AvidMovieFan16 **(oh don't worry I would never rip apart Jember),** janusscientes **(the fact that you said you don't usually review makes this review even more flattering, but as to your point about Ember's reaction to Lula, I totally agree! Lula is an acquired taste, not an immediate bestie),** AfterDaybreak **(I hope this next chapter is just as great!),** Kaitlyndelarosa **(aww thank you :D),** I LOVE YOU **[well I like the way you review ;)],** Storythriver123 **(thank you for leaving that review because it reminded me how much I'd been dying to get back to my writing!), and** Ruby Pen **(I'm thrilled to hear that you've enjoyed both of my NYSM stories :D)**

 **Next on today's itinerary is...GET TO THE ACTUAL STORY ALREADY!**

 **Disclaimer: just because I worked for fifteen dollars an hour for forty hours a week for over twelve weeks this summer (and have yet to spend it on Christmas presents or an apartment in the city) does not mean I can afford the rights to this franchise**

 _*September 17, New York City, New York*_

"How much...stuff did...you bring?!" Ember grunted, her arm muscles straining from carrying Lula's giant black trunk up four flights of stairs.

"Let me do the math," Lula chirped before - without any warning - she plopped down her side of the trunk on the landing, narrowly missing Ember's foot and causing the Irish girl to huff in frustration.  
"I've got another trunk of equipment, three suitcases of clothes, four boxes of personal belongings," the brunette rattled off as she used her fingers to keep count, "so I guess the answer to your question would be...everything I own."

"And of course fate would have it that you'd be moving in on the one day that the elevator breaks down," Ember muttered as she grabbed her end of the trunk and gestured for Lula to do the same so they could get this blasted prop-box upstairs before any of their neighbors got back from work.

"Are you sure this was really fate? What if it was...the Eye?" Lula asked in a dramatic whisper.

The blonde rolled her eyes with a scoff before opening the stairwell door with a backwards kick. "You're delusional."

"Think about it! What if this is, like, the Eye's way of helping us bond?"

Once they reached the end of the hallway, Ember lowered the trunk to the floor so she could dig her key out of her pocket. "Sorry to burst your bubble, newbie, but you're giving the Eye way too much credit."  
Lula continued to ramble about 24/7 surveillance and secret tests hidden within ordinary tasks, but Ember did her best to block the babble out. After all, if the Eye was really as omnipotent as Lula believed, they never would've let Henley leave the Horsemen. Remembering how she felt when she returned to the apartment six months ago to find Henley's stuff completely gone and a letter waiting on the kitchen counter nearly brought Ember to tears.

"So do I need to do a drumroll or are you gonna open the door already?!" Lula piped up.

"Huh?" Ember replied dazedly. "Oh, right, sorry."  
The blonde proceeded to unlock the door and open it up to her new roommate.

The apartment had a simple kitchen area attached to a small living room complete with a sofa, coffee table, television, and stereotypical décor for young women in their twenties (such as a copy of Van Gogh's "Starry Nights" and a "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster on the walls, a dead-ish houseplant sitting by the window, and a few items of clothing draped across the couch). There was a plain bedroom on each side of the living room and a little bathroom off to the side.

"Wow this place is..." Lula pressed her lips together as if trying to come up with the right words, "emptier than I expected. But hey, that just means there's lots of potential for decorating!"  
All of a sudden, Lula squeezed her eyes shut, pinched up her face, and rubbed her fingers in tiny circles around her temples.

"Except Dylan said we're not allowed to leave anything personal lying around in case we have to run on the spot," Ember explained, her voice straining from physical exertion of dragging Lula's obscenely large trunk in from the hallway. "Besides, it protects us from any nosy neighbors or overly-eager government agents because the only thing they'll be able to prove is that female Millennials lived here."

"Ooh yes...yes...and I got it!" the brunette exclaimed as her big green eyes snapped open. "I know exactly how to make this place pop!"

Despite the fact that Lula clearly hadn't heard a single thing said in the past two minutes, Ember chuckled softly. "Henley said the exact same thing when we..." Her voice trailed off and her expression darkened before she could finish her sentence.

"When you..." Lula prodded with a grin, clearly eager to hear more about the Eye's former escape artist.

Unfortunately, the Irish girl's nostalgic mood had been soured. "I'm gonna go get the rest of your bloody things before heading to the café."

"Café? But it's already, like, three in the afternoon."

"True, but since Dylan made me skip my morning shifts today so I could help you move, my manager is punishing me with the low-tipping 'hipster coffee date' shift and the 'post-clubbing binge' shift, complete with drunk customers trying to stick their hands up my skirt."

"Oh, why don't you just stick a mouse trap to the side of your underwear? That trick quite literally saved my butt when I worked in Atlantic City!"

Ember froze mid-step. "At-Atlantic City?"  
The blonde remembered Dylan saying that Lula had worked the underground scene for ten years, but Ember had no idea that the same girl who was known for pulling a hat out of a rabbit over eight years ago would be able to score a gig in one of the top entertainment cities in the country. Even Ember wasn't able to get her magic act out of the Vegas strip club scene until the Eye had recruited her to join the Horsemen.

"I mean it wasn't exactly, like, a steady job, mostly just bartending with a couple shows a week for the late night crowd, which is why I came up with the mousetrap idea," Lula rambled, completely oblivious of the slight envy in Ember's eyes. "But hey, clearly it was enough to impress the Eye because here I am!"

"Yeah...here you are," Ember said with a forced grin and a nervous laugh as she began backing out the door. "And here I go, back to the van to get the rest of your stuff."

"Wait, what do you want me to do?" Lula called out after her new roommate.

Ember scoffed while she strode down the hallway back to the stairwell door. "Do you really want to hear my answer to that?" she muttered under her breath.

 _*October 31, New York City, New York*_

"And boom! You all escape to the roof; go down the tube to the flatbed that'll take you to the rendezvous point; and by the time the police or the FBI get there, the only one they'll be able to arrest is Owen Case!" Dylan explained as he used his laser pointer on the three-dimensional model of the Octa theater. "Any questions?"  
There were none...because all five Horsemen were either too bored or too tired to keep their eyes open.  
"Seriously?! You guys have been hounding me for over a year and a half to give you a new mission, and when I finally get you one, you can't even bother to stay awake through the prep?!"

"No offense, Dilly, but we've already been over the exit plan a hundred times," Merritt complained as he tilted his fedora over his eyes and slouched in his chair like he was ready to take a nap...until Dylan snatched the fedora and flung it to the floor.

"And we'll go over it a hundred times more until every one of you can recite it in your sleep!"

"Um, I think some of us are already at that point," Lula observed hesitantly with a glance off to the side.

Dylan looked toward the end of row where he saw Jack sitting on the floor with his head resting up against Ember's knees. Fed up with his recruits' laziness, the double agent grabbed Merritt's hat off the ground and threw it straight at the pickpocket.

"Gah, go down the tube!" Jack repeated groggily.

"I don't even know why I'm wasting my valuable time trying to whip you five back into performing shape if you can't even bother to listen!"

"We have been listening! For weeks!" Ember groaned. "And honestly, Dylan, if you want us to pay more attention, maybe you should change up your script every once in a while."

"Or change up who reads the script," Daniel muttered under his breath.

"If you don't like the way I run this mission, why don't act like a real man and say it to my face instead of behind my back?!" Dylan called out angrily.

While the federal agent and the illusionist proceeded to argue over who deserved to lead the Horsemen for the umpteenth time, Ember decided it was the prime opportunity to carry out her own disappearing act.  
"Come on, Yank!" Ember hissed as she scooped up her duffel bag and grabbed Jack's hand. "If we hurry we can still make it to-"

"And just where do you think you two are going?" Dylan asked, suddenly appearing in front of the door with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Um...out?" Jack responded cautiously, still confused how the undercover magician pulled off his 'teleportation' trick in the spur of the moment.

"Oh, so you don't have enough energy to stay awake during rehearsal but you have enough to party all night?"

"Psh not all night!" Ember dismissed with a wave of her hand. "Just until dawn."

"And you plan to bring your boyfriend, who is supposed to be dead, to a place filled with lots of prying eyes, smartphones, and alcohol?!"

"Um, excuse me, but do I look like I was born yesterday?! That's why we'll be in costume!"

"So you're willing to ruin your covers, throw away years of work, and get yourselves - and potentially your teammates - tossed in prison just because you want to get wasted in a packed club, rub up next to each other and a bunch of sweaty strangers, and listen to deafening so-called music while dressing up as what?" Dylan spat out scornfully. "A skanky leprechaun and a pot of gold? A naughty nurse and a dead patient? Netflix and Chill?"

"None of the above!" Ember shut down with a derisive snort. "And not that it's any of your business, but we're going as-"

"I don't care!" the scruffy suit cut in. "What you're doing is reckless, dangerous, and purely selfish. Do you have anything to say for yourselves?!"

"We'll be wearing masks," Jack offered in a weak attempt at humor.

"Oh because that makes it all better!" Dylan exclaimed, his voice raising another octave and his face reddening another shade.

"Come on, Dylan! We haven't had a day off in weeks! Please just let us have Halloween and I promise I'll be a perfect angel until the show!"

"And if I say no?"

"I can make every single day a living hell!" Ember chirped with a big fake-innocent grin.

Realizing that he had no other choice, the Horsemen's handler threw up his hands in surrender. "Fine! Go out! Go party! But if you get busted, I'm not bailing you out!"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Ember squealed excitedly as she flung her arms around Dylan and squeezed him tightly. However, before it could get awkward, Ember let go of the federal agent, grabbed Jack's hand and her duffel bag, and raced up the stairs of the warehouse.  
"Let's go Yank! It's time for some midnight mischief!"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Merritt's voice echoed. "All this time I've been trying to use my potent powers of persuasion to get a little vacation time, but the only thing I needed to do was give you a hug?! Bring it in, Dilly!"

 _*{0}*_

About an hour later, Ember and Jack were dancing and laughing together in a popular nightclub while dressed up to the nines as a Victorian style acrobat and ringmaster.

Ember had her curly dirty blonde hair styled in a high bun with a few little ringlets left loose to frame her face and graze the back of her neck. She was wearing a strapless satin scarlet corset with gold lace decorations, white thigh-high stockings with red bows at the top, and black stiletto pumps. As for makeup and accessories, Ember also added red lip-gloss that perfectly matched her leotard, white elbow-length gloves, pearl teardrop earrings, and a pearl choker. However, in order to protect her identity, she added a black filigree half-mask - with a matching black filigree hair ornament pinned to her bun - over her kohl-lined eyes and sparkly gold eyeshadow.  
Her costume resembled her Demitria Ruby uniform from her days back at Three Rings (her uncle's strip club in Las Vegas), but this time Ember felt empowered because her body once again belonged to her instead of someone else.

Jack, on the other hand, dressed up in a scarlet satin blazer with gold embroidery and traditional coattails over a partially-unbuttoned white shirt. He also had on black fitted pants with a gold belt and knee-high black leather boots. The ensemble was topped off by a white filigree mask and a black top hat with a red and gold band around it.

While the masks, jacket, and corset certainly weren't cheap, Ember had spent the past year scraping together tips and forgoing bottles of wine and new clothes to pay for them because Halloween always had and always would be her favorite holiday. Strangely enough, even though the fire-dancer had heard about the party from her coworkers at the café (and she even recognized a few of them in crowd), Ember did her best to make sure that she and Jack stayed away from any familiar faces to ensure that they were not recognized as the most shipped couple of the famous Five Horsemen.

"I-I gotta say," Jack spoke up as he held Ember's hips in his hands and they swayed along to the loud music, "as well as those golden brown eyes accentuate your costume, I miss seeing those sparkly sapphires."

"Oh Jack..." Ember gushed dazedly. Unfortunately, before she could display her affection, she felt a hard slap to her butt and a rough hand around her wrist.  
"Oi, what the hell?!" the Irish girl exclaimed as she whipped around to face the Neanderthal who had the bollocks to grab her like a piece of meat.

"Come on, you sexy thang! Time for you to learn what a real man feels like!" a disheveled pirate slurred, his grip strong for a man whose breath reeked of cheap vodka.

Never one to let herself feel like a damsel-in-distress, Ember began to flip through her mental catalogue of comebacks she had prepared years ago in her previous line of work. However, before she could let loose a dagger-like retort, Jack stepped in to defend the fire-dancer.  
"Hey, leave my girlfriend alone!"

"Your girlfriend?! Any man who wears that much lace doesn't deserve a piece of tail like that!"

"Come on, dude, just back off!" Jack tried again.

"For a guy dressed like a butler, you sure need to learn some manners," the drunkard sputtered before swinging back his fist a attempting to punch Jack in the face.  
Luckily, because of the jerk's alcohol-impaired motor skills, Jack had enough time to dodge the brunt of the attack...but that actually pissed them both off even more. In fact, the ringmaster was so busy shoving the pirate away that he didn't notice that his mask had gotten knocked off in the scuffle.

Ember, however, knew that the most important thing to protect was their identities. "That's enough!" she cried out as she pulled the two men apart.  
Ember grabbed Jack's mask off the ground and refastened it on his face in case the brawl had drawn the attention of the club security guards or other clubgoers with cell phones and social media accounts.

"But Em-"

"Let me handle this!" the Irish girl responded in a tight and deliberate voice, which Jack recognized as her scheming tone. Ember then took a deep breath, donned her flirty face, and turned her attention toward the inebriated scoundrel.  
"Look, handsome, how about you go buy us some drinks while I clear things up with my, uh, soon-to-be ex here?" Ember proposed as she trailed her hands down the pirate's chest. "And then when you get back, you and I can discuss whose room to wake up in."

The drunkard laughed obnoxiously in Jack's direction. "You got it, sexy!" He began to strut in the direction of the bar...however he lost his swagger after about two steps when his baggy pirate pants suddenly dropped to the ground and revealed his speedo-like underwear. His already-red face got even redder as the laughter of clubgoers around him drowned out the deejay's tunes. The buccaneer tried to flee to the bathroom, but he kept tripping over his fallen pants and falling to the sticky club floor while getting blinded by flashing phone cameras.

"Ooh, a saggy banana hammock! Now that's what I call karma!" Jack jeered with a huge grin on his face.

Even in the darkness of the club, anyone could see Ember's foxlike smirk. "Trust me, karma had nothing to do with it," the fire-dancer purred mysteriously before pulling the pirate's belt out from behind her back and snapping it to the ground like a whip.

"You little minx!"

Ember chuckled mischievously and leaned in so her breath tickled Jack's ear "Baby, you have no idea!"

"Maybe not yet..." Jack suddenly spun Ember in a circle and dipped her in his arms. "But I have a feeling I will in about twenty minutes once I get you back into your bed."

Whether it was Jack's husky voice or the blood rushing to her head from being dipped, Ember could feel her cheeks flushing underneath her mask and her lovestruck smile growing even wider.  
Jack took that speechlessness as a yes, so he helped the blonde regain her footing and kept his hand on the small of her back as he escorted her through the crowd to make sure that every other clubber they passed knew Ember was already taken.  
However, right before they reached the exit, Ember stopped in her tracks.  
"Actually, would you mind if we make that twenty five minutes? I have a little extra business to attend to in the ladies' room." With that, the Irish girl twirled a random wallet between her fingers and winked playfully.

Jack laughed in disbelief. "Did you pick that from that jerk's pocket?!"

Ember shrugged noncommittally, but her Cheshire grin gave her away. "What can I say, I had a very...very good teacher." The blonde pivoted and strutted off toward the bathroom to inevitably flush the drunkard's wallet down the club toilet.

The professional pickpocket growled under his breath, just as turned on by Ember's spirit and spunk as he was by her flawless figure and skimpy costume. In fact, thinking about how eager he was to get back to the apartment kept him occupied until Ember returned from her little business trip and looped her arm through the crook of Jack's elbow.  
"Ready to go home, gorgeous?"

The Irish girl nodded with her million dollar smile and the two magicians walked out of the club hand-in-hand...completely unaware of the man in a ninja costume who was recording their departure on his cell phone.

 _*November 7, New York City, New York*_

" _Are you listening, Horsemen? When you emerge, and you will, I will be there...waiting,_ " Thaddeus Bradley's velvety voice echoed. " _Because mark my words, you will get what's coming to you...in ways you can't expect, but very much deserve. Because one thing I believe in is an eye...for an eye._ "

"Gee, Emmy, I know you used to be a stripper, but I had no idea you were a masochist!" Merritt teased, jarring the pyrotechnician out of her daze by breathing over her shoulder. "Take notes, Jackie boy, maybe you can get yourself a new roommate who doesn't mind letting you, hehe, bunk on top."

Ember glowered at the hypnotist as she yanked out her earbuds. "Really, Merr? Two and a half years later and you're still making stripper jokes?"

"You're right, I'm sorry, I promise I'll stop...as soon as it stops being funny!" Merritt exclaimed before laughing obnoxiously.  
Ember didn't say a word, but the way she jerked the earbuds out of the laptop port and snapped the cord tightly before wrapping it around her fingers was warning enough that she was not in the mood for low blows.  
"So," Merritt cleared his throat awkwardly, "why are you watching 'The Nutty Ramblings of a Bitter Jealous Patsy' anyway?"

Ember propped her elbows on the table and groaned as she pressed her face into her hands. "Because, unfortunately, some of his ramblings aren't so nutty. Thaddeus Bradley has had twenty months with nothing to do but eat, sleep, and think about who duped him...and how to get revenge on them."

Merritt pursed his lips as if he was weighing the logic behind Ember's argument. "Okay...better question, why aren't you watching it at your place?"

"Because I refuse to spend any more time with that psycho shock artist than is absolutely necessary!" the Irish girl blurted in frustration.

Both Merritt and Jack froze in place, both of them rendered speechless by the disgust dripping from Ember's unexpected outburst. Fortunately, the universe chose this moment to send a distraction.

 _Ding dong!_

"I'll get it!" Merritt announced a little too chipperly, eager to escape the electric atmosphere in the living room.

At this point, Jack abandoned his card-throwing and knelt beside Ember, who was busy burying her head in her arms on the table. "Em, do you not like Lula because y-you think she's trying to replace Henley...o-or because you're afraid she's trying to replace you?"

Ember's head shot up from the table and she snorted dismissively, but based on the redness of her eyes, she was probably just using the snort to cover up her teary sniffle. "That is complete rubbish! My reluctance to work with Lula is entirely from a professional perspective that has nothing to do with my personal feelings!"

"Yeah, calling her a psycho was completely professional," Jack teased.

"Alright I admit that was harsh, but ignore that for a second and focus on the big picture!" Ember insisted. "If Thaddeus Bradley is able to produce a vlog from a posh jail cell, I wouldn't be surprised if he also had people on the outside just waiting for us to slip up so they can do his dirty work for him!"

"Okay, clearly you've been watching too much of this show," the pickpocket responded with an amused yet concerned chuckle as he closed down Thaddeus' website and shut the laptop.  
At that moment, Merritt walked - actually more like glided - back into the room.  
"Hey Merr, Ember and I need a few more minutes alone, so would you mind going back outside? A-And while you're at it, keep this away from her for a while."  
Jack passed the laptop off to the hypnotist, who exited the front door without a word or even a mischievous expression.

"Is it just me or was Merritt a little...not Merritty?" Ember questioned.

"Uh-uh, no changing the subject this time, Em," Jack replied knowingly. "The only one who's acting out of character right now is you and I wanna know why."

Ember sighed, stood up from her chair, and began pacing around the living room. "Lula May isn't a real Horseman. We're fugitives, trying to live clean off the grid so that Thaddeus Bradley and the FBI can't find us, but little Miss Lula has all the subtlety of a hurricane, leaving a mess everywhere she goes!"

"Ember, d-don't you think that's a little extreme?"

"Extreme?!" the blue-eyed girl spat out. "Do you know what's extreme?! Freaking out the plumber by getting a fake finger caught in the disposal! Traumatizing the delivery boy by waiting to clean up a synthetic bloodbath until after he showed up?! I've been dyeing and frying my hair, wearing colored contacts, talking in an American accent, and living as barista Emily Jacobs for months! I can barely remember who I really am when I look in the mirror and yet I've learned to put up with all of this so I don't draw unnecessary attention, but then she moves in and practically puts up a big flashing sign that says 'Magicians living here!' It just makes me wanna..."  
And with that, Ember grabbed a pillow off the couch and shoved her face into it so she could muffle her screams.

Jack got to his feet, but he waited patiently until Ember's tantrum was over before he said anything. "You finished?" he asked calmly.  
Ember nodded, the pillow still covering her face.  
"Good," Jack chirped as he plucked the pillow from the pyrotechnician's hands and dropped it back on the couch, "because it's time for you to listen. Dylan has been playing the desperate obsessive at the FBI ever since the Five Pointz show so the Feds stay off our trail. And yes Lula is a bit, uh, e-excitable, but I honestly believe it's because she wants to prove herself not just to the Eye, but to you."

"And to you, in case you haven't noticed," Ember grumbled.

Jack brushed back a loose strand of straightened strawberry blonde hair that had fallen loose from Ember's messy bun. "I love you for you Ember, no matter the color of your hair or the name you call yourself. I promise, le mo chroí go léir, that I will never let anything or anyone tear us apart."

The Irish girl's heart fluttered at the sound of Jack speaking her native tongue. "I love you too, baby."  
Ember closed the space between them and pressed her lips up against his. For the first time in weeks, she felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. In fact, Ember was so focused on enjoying their kiss that she didn't notice Jack's hand fiddling around in his pocket.

When Jack pulled back to take a breath, his hazel eyes had a beautiful glow in them that Ember had never seen before. "Emmy, I-"

 _Bang bang bang!_

"Yo Jack! Have you finished taming the wild leprechaun yet?!" Merritt hollered through the door. "I'm bored, I'm hungry, and I really gotta pee!"

Ember couldn't help but laugh. "I'll go let him in on my way out. See you at rehearsal."

With that, Ember gave Jack a quick peck on the lips, grabbed her purse and her coat, and headed toward the front door. Jack sighed as he pulled his empty hand out of his pocket and went back to his playing cards before Merritt strolled back into the apartment. The mind-reader returned the laptop to its spot on the table, and yet he had a confused look on his face as if he forgot why he had it with him in the first place.

"Man, how long was I out there?" Merritt griped, but he grinned as soon as he caught a glimpse of Ember's lip-gloss smudged on Jack's lips. "Clearly long enough for you two to make up. Guess it's a good thing my bladder got the better of me or else somebody would've had to answer the door half-dressed. And speaking of which…"  
Without another word, the oldest Horseman scooted down the hall into the bathroom, leaving Jack with only his thoughts to keep him company.

 _*{0}*_

 **Happy Thanksgiving y'all! And boy am I grateful to have such a patient crew of readers or else y'all would've run me outta this virtual town with pitchforks and torches months ago for not updating (but I hope this 5100+ word chapter will compensate for that)! Luckily, I had both the time and the creative inspiration to sit down and write over 2500 words (primarily the club scene) on the day before and day of Turkey Day. Double luckily, I'll be wrapping up my second-to-last semester of college in the next month and I plan on spending a significant chunk of my Christmas break in front of both a television screen and a computer screen so I can work on both of my Fanfics!**

 **P.S. In case y'all forgot from the original, "le mo chroí go léir" is Gaelic for "with all my heart".**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey y'all! I was totally geared up to get this chapter out before the end of 2018, but let's just say that when you've got graduation and adulthood rapidly approaching, Christmas break becomes more than a little stressful. Anyway, I managed to find some time between 15 hours of classes; 8 hours of dance rehearsals (that's right, thanks to my amazingly sweet boyfriend, I'm doing what I love and performing with him in the Latin American dance showcase); and countless hours of honors-frat presidential obligations, student-entertainment-news-show host obligations, and of course homework and job applications to come back to this story! And clearly after writing 3000+ words in a single day, I was in desperate need of this creative outlet.**

 ***three months later***

 **Guess who finally received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the top university in the South! That's right, me! And you know what that means? Now I have nothing but time on my hands to hunt for jobs in broadcast news and write my fanfiction stories that I've totally neglected during my undergraduate tenure...along with my beloved readers such as:**

 **Follows:** _iforth_ **,** _I'm the Galactic Starfish_ **,** _kworm108_ **,** _liladolphin_ **,** _A Simple Cactus_ **,** _RayofFuckingSunshine_ **,** _Wolfe42_ **,** _LexizAexo_ **,** _Arkytior's Song_ **,** _jacquie1122_ **,** _Scarlett Uzumaki-Chan_

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 **Reviews:** AvidMovieFan16 **(thanks! and I can promise you the answer to your ninja question in the next chapter),** TheIndividualist **(I love hearing that my work inspires other writers! and I'm sorry you had to wait six months for this, but I hope you enjoy it just as much as the last one :D),** Blindluck92 **(I can always count on my big bro for a thorough analysis of my chapters ;P),** I'm the Galactic Starfish **(aww you binged on my stories? I'm honored! I hope this next chapter was worth the wait!),** Arkytior's Song **(LOVE your review!)**

 **Disclaimer: I'm unemployed and living back in my childhood bedroom...does that sound like someone who can afford the rights to this story?**

 _*December 8, New York City, New York*_

Ember took a deep breath as she hopped out of her taxi and stared up at the metal fortress of Octa. The big day was finally here and she'd be lying if she didn't acknowledge that there had been a couple butterflies flittering around her belly since she woke up...but she'd never admit that out loud because others might mistake it for stage fright rather than excitement.

" _You ready for this, Em?_ " Dylan asked over the earwig for the umpteenth time this morning.

Ember took a deep breath and grinned mischievously.  
"I was born ready," the Irish girl replied confidently before clearing her throat and switching to her American accent. "Or rather, Emily Jacobs was born ready seeing as she's been serving overpriced lattes to techies and bloggers for more than two years."

" _Yeah well just in case your immersive experience into the hipster psyche doesn't get you in, don't forget about Plan B,_ " the FBI agent mumbled.

"Don't get your necktie in a twist, Dilly-Boy, I know what I'm doing," Ember murmured as she tucked a loose strand of hair back into her low side bun, readjusted her black slouched beret, and took her place at the end of the 'Octa insiders' security line. With her brown ballet flats, fitted black pants, white short-sleeved blouse, brown trench-coat, and wide-rimmed black glasses with gold trim over her brown contact lenses, the pyrotechnician blended right in with all the amateur journalists, tech tycoons, and other One Percenters trying to get in to see the next big thing that Owen Case and Octa had been promising.

"Keys, cell phones, iPads, in the bin. Can't have you texting, tweeting, recording...or eating," Jack - or rather 'Frankie' - instructed pointedly as he turned toward a girl attempting to smuggle a banana in her purse. "Sorry, we will take very good care of it for you."  
The girl responded with an insincere grin before snatching up her cell phone and bag and heading inside the theater...completely unaware of the way that Jack pocketed her banana for later.  
"Next!"

"Emily Jacobs from 'Talk Digi to Me' dot com," Ember recited as she held up a phony business card to the security guard with the guest list and plopped her messenger bag onto the conveyor belt. "In fact, I was hoping I could get a super duper quick interview with the Big Guy before the show..." she wheedled as she slid a fifty dollar bill down the edge of the man's clipboard.

Suddenly, a sharp-looking woman in a sharper-looking pantsuit snatched Ember's card from the guard's hand. "Emily Jacobs, you say?"

Ember cleared her throat, trying to stifle her nerves. "Yes ma'am."

The grey-haired woman gave Ember a withering glare. "Well as Mister Case's head of public relations, all requests must go directly through me. Furthermore, I went through this entire guest list with a fine-tooth comb...and I don't recall seeing your name anywhere on it."

"Wow, this is so embarrassing!" Ember replied exaggeratedly. "For you, that is."  
The PR lady raised an eyebrow in surprise.  
"But don't worry, I'm not the tattling type, so you get me in there to meet Mister Case, and I won't tell him you forgot to invite one of the biggest tech bloggers on the west coast."

"Is that so?"

"Dang right that's so!" Ember huffed confidently. "Now are you gonna let me in or not?"

"Hmm...well seeing as I've never heard of you or your blog, I think I'll err on the side of 'not'," the woman shut down smugly. "Security!"

One of the guards stepped forward and placed a hand on Ember's shoulder. "This way, ma'am."

"Are you kidding me?" the blonde challenged in an eerily calm tone before her volume and her temper began to flare. "Are you frikkin' kidding me?!"

"Ma'am, ma'am, I need you to calm down-" the guard insisted curtly as his grip lowered and tightened.

"I will not calm down!" Ember exclaimed as she wrenched her arm out of the guard's hand.  
Meanwhile, Jack slowly crept around the metal detector as the other guards drew their hands to their belts.  
"Right before I got on my plane - which, FYI, was a red-eye from Las Vegas - I promised my readers that I would get the inside scoop on the Octa 8 and now I've got this PR prick refusing to let me in! You're gonna regret this!"  
Ember lunged for her bag in a dramatic manner...but she was stopped.

"Drop the bag and hands where I can see them!" Jack threatened in a low voice as he pressed his stun-gun into her back.

Ember huffed angrily, but she followed orders and raised her arms in the air. Unable to resist the opportunity presented, Jack began to thoroughly frisk his girlfriend. Even though she had to bite her cheek to stop herself from moaning (her automatic reaction to having Jack's hands on her), Ember managed to maintain her belligerent blogger bravado.  
"Yo, mall cop, there's no need to paw-rape me! The only weapon I have on me is my phone!" Ember locked eyes with the haughty publicist. "Which I'm gonna use to tell every single one of my 500,000 Twitter followers how their beloved Octa trampled on the freedom of the press!"

"Alright, ma'am, I think we've all heard enough," Jack spoke up as he yanked her satchel off the conveyor belt before it could go through the X-Ray. "In fact, I'm gonna take you and your phone to a very special waiting room until the show's over and the police can come pick you up."

"This violates the first Amendment!" Ember cried out one more time as Jack zip-tied her wrists and began to haul her off.

"Yeah, yeah, take it up with the legal department," Jack muttered dismissively before turning back around to pass an envelope containing official Octa stationary to the head security guard. "Oh, by the way, security memo from Case himself. Couple of surprise guests, so just follow his lead, yeah?"  
The man nodded and Jack headed off in another direction with Ember in tow. "We're all good. I'm heading to the control room," the disguised pickpocket muttered into his hidden microphone.

"Alright, thanks Jack," Dylan whispered into his cuff as he monitored the inside of the theater. "Atlas, go."

"No! Dylan, I can't-" Daniel tried to explain as he and Merritt carried trays of food and Lula snatched a chef's hat, all three of them rushing through the crowded service hallways disguised as members of the culinary staff. "No, there's too many people-"

"Atlas, I got Owen landing now!" Dylan insisted.

"Okay, I'm going now," Daniel surrendered.

Meanwhile, as the illusionist geared up to carry out a triple transformation (waiter to lawyer to maintenance man), Ember and Jack waited around the corner from the main control room for their poor unfortunate scapegoat.

"Um, sweetheart?" Ember trilled in hushed tones.

"Yeah?" the pickpocket replied, his attention focused on the hallway.

"Do you think you could, oh I don't know, untie me now?" She turned her back to Jack and wiggled her cinched hands for emphasis.

"Oh right!" Jack pulled out his pocket knife to cut through the plastic restraints.

Ember sighed in relief as she rubbed her wrists to restore normal blood flow. "Sheesh, did you have to make them so tight?"

"Sorry about that, but it had to be believable," the pickpocket apologized. However, after checking to make sure they were out of sight of any cameras or guards, Jack's hazel eyes glinted impishly. He lowered his voice as he leaned in close enough for his breath to tickle Ember's neck. "Besides, we've both seen you sneak your way out of handcuffs."

Ember chuckled mischievously as she turned around to face her handsome boyfriend, who was slowly backing her up against the wall. "Down, tiger! Save it for tonight."

However, Jack simply smirked and stepped even closer. "Are you saying you didn't imagine sneaking in moments like this during our last set of shows?"

"Mm well I know you certainly did based on how your," the blonde chuckled mischievously with a downward glance, "deck of cards reacted after that little dressing room rendezvous in New Or..."  
But Ember couldn't finish her sentence because she was too busy shuddering in delight from the feathery kisses that Jack was trailing along her collarbone.

"I'm Bo Walsh, not him!" a voice suddenly echoed through the hallway.

"Quick, back into character!" Ember hissed before reverting to the agitated Emily Jacobs, who was steaming in fury as 'Frankie' the security guard pushed her through the basement halls.

"Get off me! Look, I want to make a phone call! I wanna call my boss!" The real Bo Walsh demanded.

"Hey, hey, hey! What's going on?" Jack intervened as he stopped both the maintenance man and the security guards in their tracks, keeping their eyes up so nobody noticed him practicing his finely-tuned pickpocketing skills.

"I wanna call my boss and this jackas-"

"Hey, hey, make your phone call. That's your right, sir," Jack responded calmly.

"Oh sure, you make sure his rights are acknowledged, but not mine!" Ember spat out angrily. "Now I can add sexism to the list of complaints!"

"Okay I've had just about enough of you!" Jack snapped before addressing the other guards. "Sorry, but I gotta take care of our rogue reporter. As for this guy, let's not deprive him of his right to a phone call."

"Yeah, that's my right!" Walsh agreed. However, as he reached down for his cell phone, he pulled out a banana instead. "What the hell?!"

"You're crazy! Let's go!" one of the security guards ordered as he and his partner grabbed hold of Walsh and hauled him away.

"This isn't my-" Walsh tried to insist. "Where's my phone? Where's my phone?!"

Once Walsh and the security guards had turned the corner, Jack led Ember toward the service stairwell so she could sneak upstairs and set up the feed of Case confessing to selling his users' privacy.  
"Atlas, Stooge has left the building."

"Okay. The circuit board is ours. I am moving backstage," Daniel narrated as he slapped a 'Closed' sign on the gate to the server room.

"Funny, I don't remember the banana being part of the plan," the Irish girl whispered coyly.

"Purely improv," Jack countered with a proud smirk. "But admit it, that piece of fruit added just the right touch in selling the 'psych ward escapee' thing."

"Wow, you give a man a uniform, a taser, and a pair of shades and suddenly he thinks he's all that!" Ember teased.

"I don't think I'm 'all that'! " Jack defended before he stopped in his tracks and spun Ember toward him. "But I do think - scratch that - I do know that I'm all yours."

" _Ladies and gentlemen, Owen Case_!" a female announcer's voice resonated throughout the building.

"That's my cue to get upstairs," Ember muttered wistfully as she shoved her beret, trench coat, and glasses into a nearby garbage can before pulling a blazer and an intern ID card out from her satchel. She then grabbed Jack by the tie and pulled him close for one last kiss.  
"For good luck," the Irish girl chirped with a wink before she ran up a few floors to join Merritt in supervising Lula's big messy debut, leaving the sleight-of-hand a little short of breath.

 _*{0}*_

" _Alright, Lula, show these guys what you're made of,"_ Dylan's voice crackled over the comms.

"I can take over from here," Lula chirped as she tapped another chef on the shoulder. "Clark says you're on break."

"What break?" the chef questioned. "Who's Clark?"

"'Who's Clark?'" Lula repeated with a chuckle. "That's funny! Imagine if I told Roger that. He'd freak out!" The shock artist sprayed some extra oil on the coals underneath the meat plate, causing the flames to flare up.

"Don't do that!" the chef insisted.

"What?"

"Who the hell is Roger?!"

Lula gave the chef a look of absolute shock. "Does Lisa know that you don't know Roger?"

"I don't know who Lisa is."

"Are you kidding again? You don't know who Lisa is now?"

"No I don't, just get away," the chef dismissed as he tried to turn back to the meat, but Lula wasn't done quite yet. She grabbed hold of the electric carving tool, insisting that the real chef was ruining the meat. The two of them then proceeded to play tug-of-war with the culinary equivalent of a chain saw.

"Don't make me have to go to Brian!"

"I don't know who Brian is!"

"Why are you acting like this?! I'll go straight to him!"

"Give me that!"

Finally, Lula wrenched the carving tool free and aimed the blade straight for the middle of her left forearm. She screamed dramatically as the packet of fake blood hidden underneath her sleeve began gushing all over the place. The guests gasped in horror and even 'bad boy' Owen Case went a few shades paler at the sight before ordering his entourage to take care of the situation. Merritt took that opportunity to get the slimy tech mogul alone.

"Have some water," the magician-turned-cocktail-waiter offered as he held out a glass of water.  
Case graciously accepted and Merritt threw an arm over Case's shoulder to lead him away from the dining area. Once they were away from prying eyes, Merritt jerked Case by the shoulder so their eyes lined up.  
"I feel from your face you're freaked by the flow of blood, which is fully fixable in a snap..."  
 _Snap_!  
"by focusing and following the flow of my words as you're flowing and floating..."  
 _Snap_!  
"which is why you're"  
 _Snap_!  
"focusing on my commands. You got this far in life by listening to one voice, the voice in your head. This is that voice."  
The hypnotist slipped an earwig into Case's ear and steered him toward the janitor's closet...where a certain 'intern' was poking her head out the door, anxiously watching for any sign of the PR lady who had tried to throw her out earlier. Merritt stopped Case directly in front of the camera while Ember made minor adjustments for Case's height and posture.  
"Look at the light. Listen to your own voice."  
With that, the psychic and the pyrotechnician left Case inside, dazedly awaiting his instructions, and locked the door before creeping down to the backstage area to change into their costumes, stopping for just a moment to watch Lula's flailing and wailing.

"Maybe Lula should get her own cooking show when all this is over," Merritt commented.

Ember scoffed. "I doubt enough people would have the stomach to last through a single episode of Slicing and Dicing with Lizzie Borden'."

Meanwhile, Lula managed to finally remove the carving knife from her arm.  
"Oh my God!" the shock artist exclaimed in a ragged voice, panting as another cook wrapped a towel around Lula's supposedly-gaping wound.  
All of a sudden, her facial expression softened and her breathing lightened. "Wow! What is that?! Is that- is that a miracle towel? Thank you so much!"  
Lula then turned toward the chef that she dragged into this whole mess. "Do you know what? You have taught me that I'm not cut out for this kind of work. I quit!" She started to walk away, but she couldn't resist spinning around to make more dramatic farewell.  
"Thank you, and goodbye!" Lula proclaimed as she flung a bloody hand across the room so that it landed in the middle of the appetizers. The guests and staff were so traumatized by the fake limb that they didn't even notice Lula scurry out with her real limb perfectly intact.

 _*{0}*_

A few minutes and a few bobby pins later, Ember stepped out from the backstage bathroom looking like herself again. She still had the bangs, but she had bleached her hair back to its natural platinum blonde shade the night before and forgone any flat-ironing. Not only was it a refreshing change, but it also made it easy to tie some of her hair up into a high bun with two bejeweled sparkler sticks jammed through it while the rest of her curls flowed down to her waist. Ember also added some black sparkly lip-gloss and silvery smoky-eye makeup to match her silver fingernails. As for her outfit, Ember had donned a shimmery black fitted cowl-neck halter top, a short asymmetrical black leather skort over black bejeweled fishnet tights, and her favorite lightweight black combat boots.

"Mm mm mm, there she is, looking like the girl of my dreams!" Jack purred with a pleased grin.

"Not to mention the girl of Owen Case's nightmares," Ember replied as she took her boyfriend's outstretched hand and began to walk toward the other Horsemen, but Jack stopped her.

"I'm serious, Emmie. You look...absolutely breathtaking."

The Irish girl couldn't hold back her giggle. "Aww, Jack, you're gonna make my face all red before I even get near the spotlights." Suddenly, she noticed the way that Jack was staring at her. "What? Oh no, is my face actually turning red? I could've sworn that I added enough makeup to cover that, but then again it's been awhile since the last time-"

"No! No, no, no it's not that at all," Jack stammered apologetically before regaining his composure. "You look perfect."

Ember grinned somewhat nervously. "Okay, so why...?"

"It's just...I can't remember the last time I got to see your natural beauty. I've spent over a year and a half around the brown-eyed straight-haired Emily Jacobs, but those deep blue eyes, those unruly platinum curls, I've missed them...and I've missed you, Ember Jinx."

"Oh Jack..." the blonde gushed lovingly as Jack raised her hand and tenderly kissed right on the edge of her bejeweled black fingerless glove before he began to slowly kiss his way up her arm. "Wait, my jacket! Thanks for reminding me!"  
And with that, Ember rushed off to find her abandoned satchel while Jack went up to join Lula and Merritt at the edge of the stage.

"I'm actually nervous," Jack admitted bashfully, "and I'm not even going onstage."

"You know, I've heard that if you're nervous, it can be really helpful to picture each other naked," Lula proposed in a surprisingly serious tone.

"It's actually picture the audience naked," Daniel corrected.

"No, this is new," Lula insisted before she turned to address Jack more directly. "This is a new science, so...I don't know, do you want...we should try it!"

It was right then that Ember emerged from the shadows with a dangerous spark in her navy blue eyes as she tugged on her cropped leather jacket and rolled up the cuffs in an almost aggressive manner. The fire dancer sauntered up and stepped right between Lula and Jack.  
"Oh I don't need to try it, new girl, because I've already seen it..."  
Ember leaned in, gave Jack a long and deep kiss, and then wiped away any black glittery smudges her lip-gloss had left behind on his lips before she cast a taunting smirk at Lula.  
"Many, many times."

"Guess that leaves you and me, old buddy," Merritt muttered to Daniel, sensing that the room needed a little icebreaker.

"What? Oh, to picture each other...no, no thank you," the self-proclaimed playboy shot down immediately.

"Maybe if Henley was the one asking," Lula mumbled under her breath, earning her a set of dagger eyes from Daniel.

"I mean, I admit, from the neck up there are issues," Merritt continued, "but from the neck down: the David."  
Thankfully, the Horsemen did not have to subject themselves to that mental image for long before the Mistress of Ceremonies announced the man of the hour: Owen Case. Merritt took that as his cue to begin feeding the hypnotized CEO his speech confessing to techie treason.  
" _Good morning, Octa-lites! Now, I've made the claim that Octa 8 is pure magic. But the truth is that's just one of those things I say...when in fact I mean something else. What else do I mean? Well, here to fill you in on some of my fabulous lies and hypocrisy and to perform some of the most dazzling feats of magic you have ever seen..."_  
Despite hearing their digital icon admit to being a con-artist, the audience whispered eagerly among themselves because it suddenly dawned on them exactly who was just moments away from returning to the stage.  
" _They are the world's greatest magicians, here to expose me for the fraud I truly am. Ladies and gentlemen, here are the Horsemen!"_

The numerous screens across the stage suddenly turned into a high-tech zoetrope with images of Ember, Lula, Daniel, and Merritt strutting across the stage. The audience leapt to their feet and roared in excitement. Suddenly, only the four screens in the center featured the Horsemen walking directly toward the crowd...until they finally shattered the illusion by hopping through the screens onto the stage itself.

"Hello New York!" Ember greeted energetically in her natural Irish brogue as she clapped along with the audience. "Thank you so much!"

"Hey, it's great to be back," Merritt agreed with a little extra bounce in his step.

"And have you met our newest Horseman, Lula?" Daniel jumped in, allowing the green-eyed girl a share of the spotlight as she waved at the crowd. "Feels good, right?"

"Feels pretty good," Lula agreed in an almost giddy voice, looking around the stage as if she were in a dream. "Pretty good."

Once the audience settled down, Daniel took his place center-stage with Lula on his left and Ember and Merritt on his right.  
"Thank you, thank you! We want to talk to you about your privacy. Now, what does your privacy mean to you?"

"Because apparently to Owen Case, it means absolutely nothing," Merritt answered cynically.

"No, actually it means less than absolutely nothing," Lula corrected with a wag of her finger. "You see, he's mocked your privacy, he's scorned it."

Ember, who was casually twirling one of her sparkler sticks between her fingers like a baton, picked up on her cue flawlessly.  
"In other words, here's what Owen Case thinks of your privacy."  
The pyrotechnician jammed the stick back in her bun, plucked the maintenance man's cell phone out of her pocket, flung it to the ground, and did a little jig on it to make her point, causing the audience to gasp in shock.

"Right, and we're not just talking about the things that you already agreed to when you signed, probably without reading, um, the terms and conditions of Octas 1 through 7," Daniel commented knowingly.

All of a sudden, Ember felt overcome with a sick feeling of terror...one she hadn't felt since her parents died in that fiery wreck almost a decade ago. As Merritt followed up with his lines, Ember searched the audience for Dylan, whose face was suddenly drained of color as he plucked a tarot card from his tablet.

" _Dylan, the FBI is here_!" Jack's voice hissed over the comms as he remained undercover with the other security guards outside.

"Alright, don't worry about it," Dylan assured the supposedly-deceased pickpocket as he ducked out of the auditorium. "Alright go to Plan C-4. Lock the doors."

Ember was so distracted by her fear and focus on what could be happening offstage that she blanked on what she was supposed to be doing onstage. She looked around and realized that based on Lula's expectant gesture, Merritt's amused yet concerned smirk, and Daniel's dagger eyes, Ember was supposed to be delivering lines at the moment...lines that had been replaced by a blank space in her memory.  
Luckily, a certain eager-to-impress newbie had memorized the entire script beforehand and stepped in to save the pyrotechnician from further embarrassment.  
"Before we start the show, we had Owen agree to a few terms and conditions of our own. So, everything that he had once considered private-"  
 _Bzzt! Squee!_

In the wake of that electrical feedback, Lula's microphone went dead. She looked at her fellow Horsemen for an explanation, but Daniel decided that the show must go on.  
"Yeah, everything that he once considered private is now-"

 _Boom!_  
Every mic, phone, camera, and digital device in the entire room powered down, causing the crowd to murmur anxiously amongst themselves. Meanwhile, the Horsemen noticed that they were cast in an ominous scarlet glow and turned around to see that the Octa logo above them was pulsing with blood-red lights before it, too, shut off completely.  
Suddenly, a painfully high-pitched static noise echoed throughout the auditorium to signal the appearance of a new ringleader in this three-ring techno circus...one whose facial and vocal distortions kept constantly morphing on the screen.  
" _As the Horsemen like to say, magic is about controlling perception. You see them as champions of the truth, but are they? Or is that just another one of their illusions?"_  
Even though all four of the Horsemen onstage wanted to know who had completely ruined months of planning, they all knew that the consequences of sticking around outweighed their curiosity. Lula looked to Daniel for advice, who then nodded toward the side door of the auditorium, and Merritt placed his hand on Ember's shoulder reassuringly as he guided her in the direction of the others.  
" _So since they clearly love secrets, let's reveal some of theirs._ "  
The unknown hijacker turned the stage lighting back on for the Horsemen, making it impossible for them to sneak off without being seen.

" _Danny, get everyone off the stage_!" Dylan ordered over the earpieces as he realized where this whole mess was leading. " _Abort_! _Jack, go with them. I'll see you at the meet-up point._ "  
The Horsemen gave up any hopes of a stealthy exit and tried to run offstage, but another deafening feedback wave disoriented and frightened everyone in the room. Ember - who suffered from sensory sensitivity after she got caught in the blast when her parents' car exploded and knocked her head on the sidewalk - fell to her knees as she clutched her head in her hands, trying but failing to block out the agonizing noise. Jack saw his girlfriend in distress and tried to make his way through the fleeing spectators to help her.

" _Do you recall the death of Jack Wilder?_ " the voice continued wickedly. " _What if I told you he's not just alive, but he's actually right here_."  
The hacker remotely directed one of the spotlights so that it shone directly on Jack. The magician froze like a deer in headlights while every other person in the room suddenly forgot their panic and instead whipped out their cameras to let the world know about Jack's return to the living. Jack tried to escape with the others before too many people saw him, but the hacker posted the images on every screen inside and outside the auditorium.

"Em! Emmie, come on, we gotta get outta here!" Jack exclaimed as he leapt onto the corner of the stage, helped the Irish girl to her feet, covered her hands with his own to further muffle the auditory chaos from her ears, and quickly led her out the door with the others.

" _And do you know who else is here? The FBI. Let's let them in, shall we?_ "  
After a string of clicking sounds, federal agents stormed in through the newly-unlocked doors.  
 _"And now for the big reveal! There's a sixth Horseman, and he's the biggest criminal of them all: FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes!_ "  
Another spotlight snapped to attention on Dylan, who was flocked by his departmental antagonist Agent Cowan and his former mentee Deputy Director Austin. After exchanging a few words and some vague warnings about messing with things beyond their understanding, Dylan left Cowan, Austin, and two other feds handcuffed to the railing and to each other before slipping away into the shadows.

Meanwhile, the other five Horsemen were running for their lives across the roof. Having recovered from her auditory torture (and having the foresight to wear a skort and lightweight combat boots), Ember quickly caught up with the boys.

"We've gotta get to the chute!" Jack cried out as he ripped off his security guard shirt and tie; tossed aside the shades, hat, and utility belt; and threw his old leather jacket on over his gray t-shirt...all while running.

"Move, move!" Merritt hollered from his spot at the front of the line.

"Who are those guys?!" Lula panted in confusion as she lagged behind the others in her knee-length dress and heeled boots.

"We'll figure that out later, but for now, save your breath for running!" Ember responded as she grabbed Lula's hand to pull the shock artist along.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Daniel ordered, trying to rush Merritt while climbing the stairs to the next platform.

"Keep going!" Jack added with a heavy breath.

"How the hell could this happen?! I thought Dylan had everything under control!" Merritt huffed in disbelief as he pulled off his wireless microphone and tucked it into his blazer pocket.

"Yeah...apparently he didn't," Daniel dismissed in a bitter yet strangely satisfied voice.

The mentalist stopped in his tracks and whirled around to face the illusionist. "You know, maybe you're the leak, Dan! Where you been sneaking off to?!"

"Don't do that," Daniel responded with an insincere grin. "Don't you dare for a second insinuate that I had-"

"I'm not insinuating! That's your-"

"Oi! Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, not the time!" Ember interjected, her navy blue eyes dark with a combination of fear and fury.

"Oh yeah! That's rich coming from Little Miss 'Too Good for Roomies or Rehearsals'!" Daniel retorted angrily.

"I know you are, but who am I?" Ember melodically taunted, her negative emotions fueled by the sight of Lula wrapping her arms around Jack's neck to help her down from the high ladder.

"Let's get to the truck, come on!" Jack hollered over his bickering friends, reminding them that petty arguments would have to wait until they were at the safe house.  
"Stay together!" he called out as he climbed up the scaffolding and swung into the giant tube leading down to their getaway car.

"Right behind you, Yank!" Ember chirped with a grin as she dove in after her boyfriend.

"Lula, come on!" Daniel's voice echoed as he jumped in after Ember.

"Coming!" Merritt hooted as he followed behind Lula.

However, this was not the short and smooth ride the Horsemen expected. Instead, they were sliding down a surprisingly long tunnel, filled with random patterns of colored light and what sounded like an eerie robotic voice softly chanting, " _Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep..._ "

 _*December 9, Macau, China*_

After what felt like an eternity of screaming and squirming, the Horsemen found themselves popping out of a chute in a Chinese restaurant.

"What the hell is going on?" Jack spoke up in disbelief as he helped pull Ember out of the laundry bin.

"Wasn't there supposed to be a truck?" Lula chimed in.

"Where the hell are we?!" Daniel added.

But nobody got the answers to their questions before a big Asian man started pointing toward the door and yelling in some foreign language and the other cooks jumped in to throw the magicians out.

"Oi, watch where you put those hands!" Ember exclaimed as one of the cooks got a little rough pulling her out of the hamper.

"Hey, hey, hey! Did you misrun the tube?" Daniel demanded.

"No, I put it in the truck!" Jack insisted. "I know I did!"

"You know, because we're really not in the truck right now," the illusionist pointed out.

"Somebody must have moved the tube. Were we above a Chinese restaurant?" Merritt realized...but then some woman snatched his fedora right off his head and he lost all sense of focus. "Hey, gimme that!"

"There's something very wrong!" Lula observed in a loud voice right before they found themselves pushed through the door into a dining room filled with a lot of Asians staring them down.

"For once, I agree with the newbie," Ember responded glibly.

"Okay...why are we here?" Daniel questioned out loud.

"Why am I frickin' starving?!" Lula groaned.

"Yeah, I'm weirdly starving too," Jack agreed as he laid a hand over his empty stomach.

"And I...will be right back!" Ember blurted out before she grabbed her abdomen and rushed toward the door marked with the international symbol for 'women's bathroom'.

Merritt finally managed to get his fedora back and make his way out the door from the kitchen. "This makes no sense!" he breathed out as he headed for the restaurant's entrance to try to get some idea of where the Horsemen had ended up.

Meanwhile, the other magicians were busy trying not to get pushed around by patrons, servers, and chefs.  
"At least - and I know this isn't much consolation - but apparently we're now surrounded by Chinese food...right?" Lula reframed optimistically.

"Guys...I think where we are right now, they don't refer to it is 'Chinese food', it's just called...'food'," Merritt posited cautiously.

Ember, who had just returned from the bathroom, walked up in time to hear Merritt's theory. "Wait, what are you saying?! How is this possible?!"

Suddenly, an obnoxiously high-pitched giggle emerged from behind a menu. "I believe in your particular parlance, the word is...'magic'!"  
Merritt's face immediately contorted like he had seen a ghost...and as soon as the annoying customer turned around to face the magicians, the other four Horsemen understood why. The man was literally Merritt except with a light brown afro, a patchy goatee, and bright bucky teeth.

"That guy looks exactly like you!" Lula muttered through clenched teeth. "He looks exactly like you! Are you seeing this right now?!"

Merritt shushed the shock artist to address his clone. "Chase-"

"Must confess, it's like what I heard about meeting the Rolling Stones: they're a lot shorter in person," the man teased with a toothy grin.

"Great so not only do they share a face, but they also share a bad sense of humor," Ember muttered under her breath, earning her a glare from Merritt.

"Remember I told you about the guy who screwed me out of everything?" the balding hypnotist continued bemusedly. "This...is my twin brother, Chase."  
Chase clapped his hands together before he placed them over his heart and bowed his head, seeming almost proud at Merritt's summation.

"Wait, did you do this?" Daniel questioned, moving forward to talk to the other McKinney face-to-face. He didn't get very far, though, because as soon as Daniel took his second step in Chase's direction, literally every patron in the restaurant snapped up from their seats, started shouting what one could assume were threats, and cocked guns in the direction of the Horsemen.

However, despite the amount of heavy weaponry surrounding him, Chase continued to chuckle in pure amusement. "As you can see, my boss don't mess around."

"I do not understand what is going on right now!" Lula spoke up, her hands in the air in panic. "At all!"

"Okay, let me break it down for you," Chase offered before proceeding with a baseline explanation, complete with remedial hand gestures and a patronizing grin. "You jumped off a rooftop in New York and you landed in Macau - AKA the Vegas of China - and presto changeo...don't you just love it?! The 'greatest magicians in the world' are the object of someone else's magic trick! Isn't that poetic?"

The Horsemen remained silent, but their angry glares said plenty. Ember's Irish temper, however, had finally reached its tipping point and she finally decided to verbalize what they were all thinking.  
"Look here, Grinny McGiggles," the blonde cut in as she elbowed her way through the bodyguards to get within a few feet of Chase, "you picked the worst possible day to mess with me and my mates! I'm confused; I'm famished; and, frankly, I'm PMSing, so you better start making sense before I light that ugly rug of yours on fire!"  
Ember reached up to grab her sparkler sticks from her bun to prove the validity of her threat, but they were gone.

"Looking for these?" Merritt's evil twin cooed as he plucked the bejeweled fire-starters from his coat pocket. However he made the mistake of waving them around tauntingly and stepping in closer to the Irish girl.  
"Sorry, but I couldn't risk a little pyromaniac and her fancy matches getting the better of MEEEE!" Chase squeaked in pain, his knees buckling as he cradled the McKinney family jewels.

Ember smirked victoriously as she lowered her foot, proud that all her years fending off strip club clientele had paid off. "Feeling the burn now?"  
Even Merritt - who had been wanting to do that to his twin for years - winced empathetically.

One of the more intimidating guards grabbed Ember by the wrists and shoved her to the ground, pressing her cheek against the mid-dinner grime of the restaurant floor and digging his boot in between her shoulder blades, while two others aimed their weapons at her head. Jack's defensive instincts immediately kicked in and he tried to make his way toward Ember, but he was blocked by a shotgun barrel in his sternum. Fortunately, Chase raised his hand to signal his men to stand down.  
"No worries, guys! I'm not gonna let a feisty firebug yuck my yum," Chase ordered in a strained voice before waving his hand dismissively. "Shoo-shoo, or mu-shu, whatever!"  
About a third of the armed customers proceeded to 'guide' the Horsemen out of the restaurant

"AND I AM NOT A PYRO!" Ember hollered angrily as the same guard who pinned her to the floor shoved her toward the door.

"Well, you know what they say: 'What happens in Macau'...uh, well I don't know the rest of it 'cause it's in Chinese, uh..." Chase turned to the remaining guards who had returned to their meals, "Hey, thanks guys!"  
With that, the evil McKinney twin donned his shades and strolled out to his luxury jeep with a smile on his face and a spring in his step.

Meanwhile, the Horsemen found themselves piled into Chase's car, which was flanked by identical black models from the front and back. Luckily, while Chase conferred with his entourage, the Horsemen had a few minutes alone in the jeep with only the driver to watch over them.

"Okay, Ember, I have a quick question for you and I need you to answer it honestly," Lula spoke up quickly. "Do you have a death wish?"

Ember rolled her eyes as she snorted derisively. "That's rich coming from the woman who introduced herself to Danny Boy with a guillotine setup."

"I'm serious! I mean a kick to the nuts was the least McCreepy deserved - no offense, Merritt-"  
Merritt shrugged, completely unfazed by the comment.  
"But still! Didn't you for one second think 'Oh, if I attack a man surrounded by thirty armed bodyguards, there's a strong chance that I'll end up with just as many bullet holes in my body'?!"

"Hmm...no, not really," Ember chirped casually, a little distracted rubbing the peanut oil and dumpling crumbs off her face. "Besides, I'm guessing there is someone very rich and powerful paying for all this security and I doubt any of them would risk their lives or livelihoods by killing off the one member of the Horsemen who knows how to rig bombs

"Okay, so in other words, yes you have a death wish. Good to know," Lula muttered as she settled herself in her seat.

"Only when people fail to acknowledge the difference between a pyrotechnician and a pyromaniac," Jack whispered defensively. "You should've seen her during the FBI raid in Las Vegas."

"Oh, you mean when the two of you nearly ruined our entire plan because your girlfriend 'accidentally' dropped a smoke bomb on the Feds and you couldn't resist the urge to clobber Agent What's-His-Name just because he was getting rough," Daniel retorted bitterly from his place in the back seat.

"It was almost two years ago, Atlas! Get over it!" Ember snapped back before nuzzling up against Jack's arm. "Don't listen to him, love. I found your actions heroic."

Jack grinned softly, draped an arm over Ember's shoulder, and left a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Well you know I'll always have your back, Emmie."

"Aww, what a touching moment!" Chase cooed from the passenger seat.

"Hey, when did you get in here?!" Lula demanded jumpily.

"Well as much as I hate to kill the mood, it's time for me to take you guys to meet the man behind the curtain. Promise to behave yourself, Emmie?"

The Irish girl replied with a dangerously sweet smile. "Sorry, I'm Catholic, and Catholics don't make promises they can't keep."

Chase met Ember's gaze for a few seconds before he broke away to address Lula's question. "It's all about blind spots..."

 _*{0}*_

 **Alright I planned to take this a few minutes farther in the movie, but I figured y'all could enjoy this 7500+ word chapter and I could leave myself a few ideas for the next chapter to keep those writing juices flowing so I can come back to it in a few days! Please don't forget to leave reviews and I guarantee I'll be back with the next chapter within the next month tops!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey y'all! I know I promised to update within a month and that that promise had a deadline of June 16th and I actually did have about 2500+ words written by that day, but I still had about ten more minutes of the movie to get through to reach my goal...and I've been stuck on that for the past two months due to two very good reasons. First, I've barely had time to open my laptop this summer due to trips to see my boyfriend across the state and my family across the East Coast, sources of family/post-grad drama, and potential job interviews. Second, any writing time and creative energy that I have been able to scrape together has been focused on my Narnia fanfic, which I haven't updated in almost three years due to writer's block. Fortunately, both of those sources of distraction turned out amazing results: a trip to DC to meet professional reporters courtesy of a family friend who works for Congress, A SUMMER INTERNSHIP at a government network in NASHVILLE (aka the same city where I went to college and where my boyfriend lives), shadowing opportunities with major people in both TV and digital news, and an 8600+ word chapter for my Narnia fanfic!**

 **However, none of these accomplishments compare to the feeling I get when I receive notifications of new...  
Follows: **_WarriorsCre3d_ **,** _JosieoftheRose_ **,** _imwiththeband69_ **,** _FiliandKili'sGirl18_ **,** _XSer_ **,** _SmileForMeDaddy_ **,** _oxXJoanneXxo_ **,** _bethisabear_ **,** _emilyblue1712_ **  
**

 **Favorites:** _WarriorsCre3d_ **,** _JosieoftheRose_ **,** _MoonBeam1995_ **,** _XSer_ **,** _oxXJoanneXxo_

 **Reviews:** Arkytior's Song **(thank you for your enthusiasm :D),** AvidMovieFan16 **(hmm, that's a possibility),** I'm the Galactic Starfish **(spoiler alert: Ember's fiery fierceness gets a little dampened in this chapter, but it'll return full force very soon),** Blindluck92 **(your support and commentary is always appreciated, big bro XOXO),** WarriorsCre3d **(I'm so excited that you picked up on that!)**

 **Disclaimer: I'm unemployed and a week away from moving back into my childhood bedroom so I can "pay my dues" by working at my hometown news station...does that sound like someone who owns a successful movie franchise?**

 _*December 9, Macau, China*_

"Blind spots," Chase repeated with a Cheshire grin as he turned to address his twin. "W-We learned that together, didn't we bro? Did he tell you that we were partners once?"  
The Horsemen continued their silent protest, their eyes either staring out the window or burning holes into Chase's skull.  
"No? I didn't think so. 'The Mini McKinneys'," the non-balding brother continued before launching into a cheesy theme song. "'Chasey and a Mer-Bear, gonna make ya scare-bear! Ma-Ma-Magic McKinneys!'"

Merritt groaned, hiding his face behind his hands as if he had blocked any memory of that little ditty for the past thirty years due to the sheer embarrassment of it, while Lula muttered a half-hearted "Cool."  
Meanwhile, Ember simply crossed her arms and kept her half-lidded eyes aimed at the road ahead. "That...was more painful than being pinned to a filthy restaurant floor," the blonde drawled in a deadpan voice.

"And then one day, uh, we were twelve and, uh...Virginia von Welsheim had a very nice party down the street. I had a little tum-tum, couldn't go. Mer-Bear did it on his own, and got a taste of the solo thing and, uh..." Chase pressed his lips together like he was trying to keep himself from sobbing, "kicked me to the curb."

"I wish someone would kick me to the curb so I wouldn't have to listen to anymore of this," Ember mumbled before Daniel shushed her.

"Chase, you win! I concede," Merritt surrendered loudly so his evil twin would move on from the motivational backstory to the explanation of the means in his villainous monologue. "Just tell me how you did it."

"Delivery guy came to your door about a month ago, little za…"

"'Za'?" Daniel repeated in confusion.

"Pizza, huh?" Merritt mused.

As Chase began to explain his 'genius' plan, Ember and Jack's faces paled more and more because they both realized exactly how and when the evil McKinney twin had found the weak spot in the Horsemen's defenses to steal their plans.

 _"Because I refuse to spend any more time with that psycho shock artist than is absolutely necessary!" the Irish girl blurted in frustration._

 _Both Merritt and Jack froze in place, both of them rendered speechless by the disgust dripping from Ember's unexpected outburst. Fortunately, the universe chose this moment to send a distraction._

 _Ding dong!_

 _"I'll get it!" Merritt announced a little too chipperly, eager to escape the electric atmosphere in the living room. While Jack helped Ember sort through her feelings about Lula, Merritt opened the door to find a uniformed man, his head down and his hat covering his face, with a pizza box in his hands._

 _"Is this apartment d3375?" the delivery guy questioned innocently._

 _"Not even close," the mentalist scoffed with a shake of his head._

 _All of a sudden, the man began spinning the box in his hand, which caused it to resemble a hypnotic pattern until it jerked to a stop with the apartment label now upside down to read SLEEP._  
 _"Sleep!" Chase hissed before he caught his unconscious brother's head on his shoulder. "Relaxing, floating, drifting, dreaming..."_  
 _Merritt dropped to the floor._  
 _"Falling."_  
 _However, Ember and Jack were too caught up in their discussion to hear the 'thump', so Chase picked up his twin, pulled him out into the hallway, and instructed Merritt to bring him the Horsemen's laptop while he waited patiently outside._

 _"Alright I admit that was harsh, but ignore that for a second and focus on the big picture!" Ember insisted. "If Thaddeus Bradley is able to produce a vlog from a posh jail cell, I wouldn't be surprised if he also had people on the outside just waiting for us to slip up so they can do his dirty work for him!"_

 _"Okay, clearly you've been watching too much of this show," the pickpocket responded with an amused yet concerned chuckle as he closed down Thaddeus' website and shut the laptop._  
 _At that moment, Merritt walked - actually more like glided - back into the room._  
 _"Hey Merr, Ember and I need a few more minutes alone, so would you mind going back outside? A-And while you're at it, keep this away from her for a while."_  
 _Jack passed the laptop off to the hypnotist, who exited the front door without a word or even a mischievous expression._

 _"Is it just me or was Merritt a little...not Merritty?" Ember questioned._

 _"Uh-uh, no changing the subject this time, Em," Jack replied knowingly. "The only one who's acting out of character right now is you and I wanna know why."_

 _"Good job, my little womb-mate," Chase congratulated giddily as Merritt shuffled out of the apartment. He sat the two of them down in the hallway and pulled a flashdrive out of his jacket pocket. "Now, be a good boy and download all your private information onto this little doodad and you can go back to the lovebirds."_  
 _Merritt did as he was told and pulled up every single file that Dylan had shared with them on performance elements, staging, escape plans, safe houses, targets, resources, etc._  
 _"That's my Mer-Bear!" Chase cooed with a patronizing pat to Merritt's cheek before he grabbed Merritt by the back of the neck and pulled him close. "Ten seconds after I snap my fingers, you will wake up without any memory of the past five minutes. As far as you know, a delivery man brought food to the wrong apartment but you directed him to the right one then stayed outside to respect the lovebirds' privacy. Do you understand?"_  
 _Merritt nodded sluggishly._  
 _"Good, now...wake!" Chase snapped his fingers then raced down the hall and around the corner before Merritt returned to his senses._

 _The hypnotist shook his head, his brow furrowed in bafflement. He didn't know exactly why he was still standing around outside, but he did know that his stomach and his bladder were both very unhappy at the moment. Merritt turned around to open the door only to discover that he was locked out and his key was inside so he banged on the door loud enough to interrupt whatever mischief or mushiness Ember and Jack were inevitably engaging in in there._  
 _Bang bang bang!_  
 _"Yo Jack! Have you finished taming the wild leprechaun yet?!" Merritt hollered through the door. "I'm bored, I'm hungry, and I really gotta pee!"_

 _Ember couldn't help but laugh. "I'll go let him in on my way out. See you at rehearsal."_

 _With that, Ember gave Jack a quick peck on the lips, grabbed her purse and her coat, and headed toward the front door. Jack sighed as he pulled his empty hand out of his pocket and went back to his playing cards before Merritt strolled back into the apartment. The mind-reader returned the laptop to its spot on the table, and yet he had a confused look on his face as if he forgot why he had it with him in the first place._

 _"Man, how long was I out there?" Merritt griped, but he grinned as soon as he caught a glimpse of Ember's lip-gloss smudged on Jack's lips. "Clearly long enough for you two to make up. Guess it's a good thing my bladder got the better of me or else somebody would've had to answer the door half-dressed. And speaking of which…"_  
 _Without another word, the oldest Horseman scooted down the hall into the bathroom, leaving Jack with only his thoughts to keep him company._

"Thanks," Daniel spat at the bald McKinney before turned to the bedhead McKinney. "How did you know how to find him?"

Chase turned around from the passenger seat and pursed his lips mockingly. "That's a very good question, Atlas."  
Daniel rolled his eyes and sunk into his seat, fully expecting Chase to just gloat over his superior knowledge...but instead Chase glanced toward the Horsemen's signature couple.  
"Costume party, man dressed like a pirate got a little aggro, knocked your mask off in public so you got back at him by stealing his belt and wallet."

"You exposed yourselves and you didn't tell us?!" Daniel spat out angrily.

"I put the mask back on before anyone could see my face!" Jack argued defensively. "B-Besides, i-it wasn't as bad as it sounds."

Chase pulled a phone out of his fancy jacket, scrolled through it, then held up a video - with surprisingly high resolution and shockingly accurate sound quality for something taken in a crowded New York City nightclub - for the magicians to watch.

 _"For a guy dressed like a butler, you sure need to learn some manners," a drunk pirate sputtered before swinging back his fist a attempting to punch Jack in the face._  
 _Luckily, because of the jerk's alcohol-impaired motor skills, Jack had enough time to dodge the brunt of the attack...but that actually pissed them both off even more. In fact, the ringmaster was so busy shoving the pirate away that he didn't notice that his mask had gotten knocked off in the scuffle._

 _"That's enough!" Ember cried out as she pulled the two men apart, grabbed Jack's mask off the ground, and refastened it on his face._

 _"But Em-"_

 _"Let me handle this!" the Irish girl responded in a tight and deliberate voice before taking a deep breath, donning her flirty face, and turning her attention toward the inebriated scoundrel._  
 _"Look, handsome, how about you go buy us some drinks while I clear things up with my, uh, soon-to-be ex here?" Ember proposed as she trailed her hands down the pirate's chest. "And then when you get back, you and I can discuss whose room to wake up in."_

 _The drunkard laughed obnoxiously in Jack's direction. "You got it, sexy!" He began to strut in the direction of the bar...however he lost his swagger after about two steps when his baggy pirate pants suddenly dropped to the ground and revealed his speedo-like underwear. His already-red face got even redder as the laughter of clubgoers around him drowned out the deejay's tunes. The buccaneer tried to flee to the bathroom, but he kept tripping over his fallen pants and falling to the sticky club floor while getting blinded by flashing phone cameras._

 _"Ooh, a saggy banana hammock! Now that's what I call karma!" Jack jeered with a huge grin on his face._

 _"Trust me, karma had nothing to do with it," the fire-dancer purred mysteriously before pulling the pirate's belt out from behind her back and snapping it to the ground like a whip._

 _"You little minx!"_

 _Ember chuckled mischievously and leaned in so her breath tickled Jack's ear. "Baby, you have no idea!"_

 _"Maybe not yet..." Jack suddenly spun Ember in a circle and dipped her in his arms. "But I have a feeling I will in about twenty minutes once I get you back into your bed."_

 _Taking Ember's speechlessness and her lovestruck smile as a sign of agreement, Jack helped the blonde regain her footing and kept his hand on the small of her back as he escorted her through the crowd. However, right before they reached the exit, Ember stopped in her tracks._  
 _"Actually, would you mind if we make that twenty five minutes? I have a little extra business to attend to in the ladies' room." With that, the Irish girl twirled a random wallet between her fingers and winked playfully._

 _Jack laughed in disbelief. "Did you pick that from that jerk's pocket?!"_

 _Ember shrugged noncommittally, but her Cheshire grin gave her away. "What can I say, I had a very... very good teacher." The blonde pivoted and strutted off toward the bathroom to inevitably flush the drunkard's wallet down the club toilet._

 _However, after Ember left for the bathroom, the camera flipped around to show a man with a black mask over his face. "Confirmed sighting of Ember Jinx and Jack Wilder," the ninja stated in a thick Chinese accent. "My men are outside and ready to tail them. I will let you know when we are ready to intercept their plans."_

Chase lowered the phone and suddenly burst out laughing at the various expressions on the Horsemen's faces. Daniel seemed like he was seconds away from strangling the group's two youngest members; Merritt looked like he sympathized with the circumstances but still wished they had been more careful; Lula had crossed her arms and refused to look anyone in the eye; Jack cradled his head in his hands like he was mentally replaying the incident and trying to figure out where that ninja had been hiding in the crowd; and Ember, perhaps most shockingly of all, looked completely and utterly defeated with her shoulders hunched and her gaze directed at her clutched hands in her lap.

"O-Okay, that explains how you found out where we lived," Jack finally spoke up, trying his best to take some blame off he and Ember's shoulders. "But h-how did you know w-we would be there that night? O-Or that we were still in the city in the first place?!"

Chase sucked in air between his teeth and looked at the pickpocket almost in pity. "So many good questions, but..." Chase pursed his lips before pretending to lock them up and throwing the pretend key out the car window.  
The rest of the ride continued in agonizing silence - except for the deafening beats of the Asian hip-hop music blaring on the stereo - until the jeep and its entourage pulled into a resort that could even compete with a high-end Vegas casino on the glitz and glamor scale.  
"Just follow the guards. They'll take you to my boss," Chase instructed as the Horsemen piled out of the car at the front door. He then rolled his window down to address Merritt directly with that insufferably smug grin of his. "Been fun playing this cat-and-mouse with you, bro-ski...Meow!"  
Merritt remained silent, but he couldn't help himself from rubbing his eyes with his middle fingers.  
"Have fun at the Sands!" Chase called back as he and his driver pulled away from the casino. Even with the pulsing music emanating from the glitzy hotel, the evil McKinney brother's infuriating giggle still echoed in the magicians' ears.

"I am so, so, so sorry!" Merritt apologized profusely as Chase's cronies escorted the Horsemen across the gambling floor.

"Yeah, you should be! Don't ever accuse me of betraying us again, okay?" Daniel ordered before angling his glare toward the youngest members. "And as for you two, don't expect me to cover for you when the Eye asks how everything got screwed up!"

Jack silently fumed at the illusionist's patronizing tone, but his anger shifted to worry when he noticed the absence of a cutting retort from the conversation. The pickpocket turned around to see Ember softly shuffling along behind him. Jack paused long enough for his girlfriend to catch up before he reached over to hold her hand in his own to comfort her.  
"Emmie, he doesn't really-"

"This time, I'm pretty sure he does," Ember dismissed in a brittle voice, not even looking at him before she pulled her hand away, crossed her arms over her chest, and quickened her pace toward the elevator.

Jack frowned in both confusion and sadness at the uncharacteristic cold-shoulder he just received from the Irish girl. However, before he had time to process it, Jack felt a strong grip on his own shoulder.  
"Keep moving," the guard grunted before shoving the pickpocket in the same direction as the others.

The Horsemen piled onto the elevator, keeping their mouths shut and their eyes locked on the door or the floor...except for Lula.  
"Do you guys ever think the Eye is watching this? You know, that maybe this is even what they want?" the new girl proposed optimistically.

"Oh yeah! And maybe they use the same surveillance equipment as Santa Claus!" Jack whispered sarcastically to Ember, but even ragging on Lula's newbie naivety couldn't make his blonde firecracker smile.

"And at the exact right moment, they're gon-they're gonna swoop in, and we'll be like 'Yes! Thank God you're here! Thank God! Just in the nick of time, Eye!' And then we'll just celebrate and it was all worth it in the end?"  
Other than a slight shake of the head from Daniel, Lula's dramatic tale of heroic omnipresent magicians was met with nothing but silence.  
"I don't even really think that either, so..." Lula brushed off as she adopted a nonchalant façade to hide her embarrassment. "It's cool."

Fortunately, the elevator chose that moment to stop at its destination. The rear doors opened to reveal rock music blaring from an extravagant penthouse suite. The Horsemen pivoted around to find a short man in a white suit juggling playing cards in front of a giant window showcasing the Macau nightlife in all its opulent glory. However, the man was clearly not a trained showman because in his attempts to impress the real magicians he had summoned, he missed his hand and sent a card flying across the room.  
Nevertheless, the man - who was actually a British man with shaggy brown hair, a beard, an unmistakable impish spark in his eyes - recovered from his blunder by spinning around with a big grin and open arms as he proclaimed "Ta-Dah!"  
Whether it was out of shock from the over-the-top décor or the fact that the man who orchestrated their kidnapping looked like he was barely legal, the Horsemen's jaws dropped.  
"So happy to be working with you!" the young man declared before pulling a remote from his pocket to turn off the music and descending the stairs to the sitting area. "Please come in! Come in!"

When the Horsemen failed to move forward on their own, the guards took initiative and pushed the group out of the elevator.  
"Bollocks, another wealthy British troublemaker," Ember muttered under her breath. "What a bloody surprise!"  
However, as soon as the words left her mouth, the British man's face tensed up ever so slightly...but only for a moment before returning to his relaxed and welcoming expression.

"Wait, sorry, how are you 'working with us'?" Daniel questioned, his voice a combination of disbelief and disdain.

"Oh, well, as much as a magician who pulls a rabbit from a hat is working with that rabbit," the mystery man explained as he slipped on his loafers and crossed the glass floor, which gave him the appearance of walking on water over a pool of water lilies. "We'll be working together, yes. Allow me to introduce myself-"

"Yeah, you're Walter Mabry," Jack interrupted in a deadpan voice. "You died a year ago."

"Yes, an idea I got from you, Mr. Wilder," Walter replied with a gesture of respect toward Jack. "Fake your death and the world puts its guard down. I'm able to control quite a few companies, including my old partner Owen's, as a consortium of so-called 'anonymous shareholders'."

"And that violates how many SEC laws?" Lula inquired.

"I believe it breaks all of them," Walter answered with a casual and somewhat proud nod.

Lula gasped mockingly. "All of them."

"You see, you all want an audience. Need one, desperately. It's quite sad, really. Hence my ability to nab you," the bearded Brit elaborated. "I, on the other hand, want the opposite of that. I just want to be - and I am - one hundred percent off the grid. You know why?"

"Yeah, because the grid is for actual human beings," Daniel derided.

The corner of Walter's mouth quirked up in an impatient smirk. "No, because in a world of total surveillance, the only true freedom lies in not being seen. You can't control the grid from within the grid."  
The magicians scoffed, rolled their eyes, and stared at their shoes, but they held their tongues long enough for Walter to register their silence as comprehension.  
"Follow me!" he chirped.  
The Horsemen stayed rooted to their spots.  
"Follow me," Walter repeated much more pointedly, which caused the guards to move the magicians themselves. "You pulled a hat out of a rabbit. That was very colorful," the Englishman praised as he wagged his finger at Lula.

"Almost eight and a half years ago, so no need to bring that up," the shock artist responded dismissively as she trailed behind the Brit.

"We can't all be held accountable for our adolescent personas," Walter shrugged off before plucking a pastry off the dessert table and locking his eyes on Daniel. "Can we...Magicolio?"

"M-Magicolio?" Daniel parroted, his cheeks turning pink with shame while Merritt suppressed a grin beside him. "Th-That was fifteen years ago."

"Wow...that's even more embarrassing than Jarvis," Ember spoke up, a little bit of that mischievous twinkle returning to her eyes. "I mean at least Jarvis you can blame on your parents, but Magicolio?! Nobody's fault but your own, mate."  
Daniel's face flushed even redder, but the others made little effort to hold back their laughter.

"Don't get me wrong, I love magic," Walter continued. "I dabbled with it, like you, and many others who, I suppose, were not getting any sex in high school." He then shifted his predatory gaze toward Ember. "Except for you, of course, Miss Jinx...or should I say Miss Ruby?"

Any trace of a hope or playfulness in Ember's eyes immediately vanished and her face went completely ashen. Only Jack, Dylan, and Merritt knew about her previous employment at her uncle's seedy Vegas strip club - Jack because she told him, Dylan because he strategically commanded and sabotaged the FBI team that was investigating the Horsemen almost two years ago, and Merritt because he actually visited the club once before they even knew each other - and considering Ember started working there at sixteen, any sexual escapades she had in her high school years were not exactly voluntary. Ember's breathing quickened as she felt the the walls closing in around her. Without even thinking of the consequences, the blonde spun on her heel and bolted toward the elevator. However, Walter's guards stepped forward to form a human wall and block her path.  
"Let...me...pass," Ember demanded in a wavering voice.

"Ah, ah, ah, I wouldn't do that, Demitria," Walter chided as he ascended the steps and circled the trembling Ember like a lion.  
Meanwhile, Merritt and Daniel each grabbed one of Jack's shoulders and Lula - despite not knowing the context of the situation - pinned Jack's wrists behind his back. Fortunately, Jack was too busy making dagger eyes at weaselly Walter to object to his restraints.  
"I heard about that ruckus you caused at the restaurant with Chase and, uh, I would hate to jeopardize your ability to return to your previous occupation by doing any more damage to that lovely figure." The confident Englishman stopped beside the hyperventilating Irish girl, leaned in so his breath buzzed in her ear like a pesky fly, and let his eyes roam up and down as he loudly whispered, "After all, I did see the surveillance package of you from Halloween and, trust me, you could still earn quite a bit of profit in knickers and stilettos."

It took the strength of three magicians and the sight of two more guards reaching for their holsters to stop Jack from turning Walter Mabry's fake death into a real one...but it didn't stop him from shooting off at the mouth.  
"Hey, Brit-Brat! Get away from my girlfriend right now or I'll-"

"Your girlfriend? My apologies," Walter replied good-naturedly before stepping in Jack's direction. "Just out of curiosity, though...on Halloween, did you have to pay her for that dance or was it a freebie for being such a loyal customer?"  
Before Jack could get in a punch - or even a word - he was interrupted by a loud thump and saw his blue-eyed beauty sprawled out on the floor. Apparently, the shame, the stress, the starvation, and Walter's slight similarity to her sleazy Uncle Rick had finally gotten to Ember and she simply fainted.  
"Well that's just swell!" Walter huffed as he threw his hands up in frustration from the sight of his comatose captive. "Mei?!"  
A slim but strong-looking Asian woman in a pantsuit stepped into the room.  
"Bring the blonde into the bathroom and give her some smelling salts or something to wake her up. She's already slept through one day, I don't need her unconscious for another one."  
Mei nodded obediently, draped one of Ember's arms over her shoulders, carried her into the bathroom, and slammed the door shut.  
"But, uh, anyway, unlike you, I was able to transition upward towards actual magic. Science, as you may have heard it called," Walter carried on, pretending he still had his full audience as he gestured toward a huge high-tech box in the corner of the suite. "So, would you like to know, my friends, just how I got you here?"

"Mm, we know how you did it," Merritt cut in with a patronizing lilt in his voice.

"No you don't," the tech tycoon insisted hastily.

"Yeah, you stole our files for the show, then obviously hypnotized us," Jack continued bitterly, his limbs released by his friends and his attention focused on the sounds of coughing and running water behind the bathroom door.

"Stop. No, s-seriously, stop."

"The strobe was a combo of binaural beats," Merritt hypothesized, "as well as-"

"I said stop!" Walter blurted, grabbing Merritt's face in his hands and staring the hypnotist right in the eyes. "You might not be having fun, but I am."

The rest of the Horsemen went almost as pale as Ember had. Clearly the only thing shorter than Walter's height was his patience.  
"You have an unusual way of showing it," Merritt replied cautiously.

"So...how'd I do it?" Walter queried rhetorically as he slowly released Merritt's cheeks and began to pace in front of his captive audience. "Easy. You see, magicians like to control other people's perceptions. In your heightened state of agitation, you saw the simplest cues - black tube, roof - and your minds filled in the rest. But the tube you meant to go down was twenty feet to your right."  
The Horsemen's expressions grew distant as they tried to visualize that roof from when they were fleeing Octa and the FBI after Walter sabotaged their performance.  
"Go on, sit down, sit down. There's no one standing in your way," the Brit offered like any other gracious host/kidnapper.

"Don't mind if I do," Merritt muttered sarcastically as he and the other magicians found themselves shoved onto the curved couch one-by-one.

"Bring in blondie!" Walter ordered.  
The bathroom opened and fire-dancer warily stepped out, her hair soaking wet and her makeup smudged all over her ivory face.  
"Well give her a bloody towel before she drips all over the furniture!"  
Mei tossed a plush towel at Ember before shoving her toward the couch to join the others. Jack immediately wrapped his arms around his cold and damp girlfriend to help warm her up...but he couldn't help noticing the way she flinched at his touch.  
"Anyway, once in the tube, yes, you're right. Blah, blah, blah, the strobe contained UV letters pulsing the word 'sleep'. And that, combined with the sound, put you into an instant alpha pattern. And from then on, it really was just fun, and I can assure you, you don't know what happened."  
Walter squeezed between the five Horsemen and turned on the TV in front of them to reveal a slideshow titled 'Our Trip to Macau' and set to tropical music. The pictures mostly demonstrated Walter taking advantage of his snoozing hostages and ranged from him donning Merritt's hat and giving them all the bird, arranging the magicians in embarrassing positions, taking a group-selfie of them lying on the floor with cards scattered over them, having a dinner date with Lula and the lei he put on her, etc.

"That's really creepy," Lula spoke up quickly. "Really, really, really creepy."

"That's not cool," Merritt mumbled after yet another picture of Walter stealing his fedora and flipping off the camera came on screen.

"Yep, easy stuff, magic...I mean, you know, if you put your mind to it," Walter bragged chipperly as a picture popped up of Ember sitting on the floor of the jet and wearing a cap that read 'Long Live the Queen'. Meanwhile, the Brit brat was caught sitting on the couch behind her, raising the Irish girl's arms in the air with a mini British flag taped in each of her hands.

"Oh, that is low!" Ember growled angrily, but Jack laid a hand on her knee to calm her down.

"Alright, that's enough," Daniel interjected with a clap. "So w-why are we here, then? Besides you getting to how off how 'adorably clever' you are."

"Well, to start with, the man you stole from last year, turns out I had invested quite a lot of money in some of his companies,...so a lot of what you stole was, in fact, mine," Walter explained, making eye contact with each magician as he proceeded. "Good news is, it's very easy for you to pay me back. I just need your skills."  
Walter clicked the remote to switch to an artsy monochromatic photo of Owen Case and then a picture of the two of them early in their tech careers.  
"Owen and I were like the Beatles, if the Beatles had been-"

"Elfin?" Daniel added jokingly.

"Geniuses," the Englishman corrected with a small but annoyed scowl.

"Pretty sure the Beatles were geniuses," Lula defended, but Walter decided to ignore the interruption and continue.

"And like them, we had a dream." Walter flipped to a picture showing he and Owen as college-aged computer geeks holding a flashy hard-drive, which Walter then amplified on the screen.

"And I'm guessing one of you achieved that dream, and it wasn't you?" Merritt surmised.

"That is what he would like you to think," Walter responded, his voice becoming more strained and breathy as he stood up to face the Horsemen. "My vision...was a perfect blend of elegance and technology. But Owen wanted it for himself so he humiliated me by exposing my private files to the board of directors and convinced them that I am unstable."

"Did you take a picture of him while he was sleeping?" Daniel inquired, arising a few smirks and chuckles from his fellow magicians.

"He had me kicked out of my own company," the Brit carried on before skipping to a digital schematic of the Holy Grail of Octa's technology, "and now he goes around taking credit for a chip that's not just the key to one computer, but every computer system on the planet."  
The Horsemen squirmed in their seats as they realized the Octa exposure mission the Eye had given them lined up with the source of Walter's vendetta.  
"It can un-encrypt anything, crack the defense firewall, manipulate markets, and spy on anyone. And now it's being sold to the highest bidder."

"If you're so rich, why don't you just buy it?" Jack proposed, his voice laced with a hint of animosity.

"So he gets the money? And the pleasure?" Walter debated without hesitation. "No. No, no, no. Besides, why would I buy it when I could have you steal it for me?"

"Oh!" Lula breathed out with a shrug, feigning stupidity for not seeing such an obvious answer on her own.

"It's being previewed tomorrow to the various suitors, which will include your targets..."  
The PowerPoint switched to surveillance shots of a scary looking man.  
"A crew led by a South African gangster."

"A South African gangster," Lula repeated with a disbelieving nod.

"Yes. How your team gets past security, that's up to you. But, uh, once you do, you just need to inspect it and steal it."

"That's it?" Daniel replied in a sarcastic tone.

"Come on, this is perfect for you, isn't it?" Walter exclaimed encouragingly. "You're magicians and thieves!"

Jack let go of Ember and wrung his hands together bitterly. "What makes you think we would even consider doing this?!" the pickpocket challenged.

"Um, oh wait, I had a reason. What was it?" the tiny tech tycoon pondered mockingly. "Oh yes! You see, back home, you're wanted criminals, but here, I control the police, the casinos, the media. I can give you a new life, out of hiding."  
The antagonism began to fade from the room as realization - and maybe even a little hope - dawned on each magician's face.  
"And if you don't, I'll have you all killed."  
And the antagonistic tension returned full force...but that didn't stop Walter from grinning eagerly.

"You know what," Jack spoke up as he got to his feet and squared off against the Brit...or rather against the top of the Brit's head because that was the only part that reached Jack's eyes. "I'm not stealing a thing for you. Not unless Dylan tells me it's okay."

"Really? Dylan is where, exactly?" Walter questioned.

"Doesn't matter," Lula dismissed before standing up and taking a place at Jack's side. "Yeah, I'm with him, so you can go ahead and kill us because I'm not gonna steal anything for you either."

"Oi, Butcher Barbie, the only one with Jack is me," Ember interjected as she shed the towel and stepped between Lula and her boyfriend...but there seemed to be less fire in her tone than usual. Nevertheless, Ember's angry gaze quickly shifted toward Walter. "And as for you, you little techie troll, _trasna ort fein_! I already stole for one greedy psychotic perv in my life and I'm not making that mistake again."

"Strikes me that a consensus seems to be forming, Walter," Merritt observed, "and, uh, we're calling your bluff."

Walter glanced back toward one of his beefy bodyguards, who stepped up as if he were ready to knock the mentalist's lights out...but he was interrupted.  
"Actually, we'll do it," Daniel stated from his place on the couch.

"What?!" the three youngest Horsemen simultaneously exclaimed.

"We're in Macau," the illusionist added in a 'duh' tone. "The oldest magic store in the world is here. We'll get the supplies we need and, uh, we'll do it."

"Thank you," Walter replied graciously as he and the self-elected leader of the Five Horsemen shook hands on their arrangement. "It should be fun. Chase will take you to the magic shop in the morning."  
And with that, the supposedly-deceased Mr. Mabry strolled out of the foyer and left the fugitive performers with only the intimidating Chinese security detail to keep them company.

"So..." Merritt eventually piped up. "Who's up for some blackjack downstairs?"

Walter's guards started barking orders as they corralled the Horsemen in the direction of the elevator. However, instead of escorting them into the elevator, they took them down a hall on the other side of the elevator that led to two guest bedrooms with all possible exits sealed and/or surveyed by more guards. Ember walked straight into the room on the right and slammed the door shut without nary a word to her friends. The other Horsemen and Horsewoman instinctively began to divide into the separate rooms, but then Jack cut in.  
"Hey, uh, Lula? W-Would you mind if I bunked with Ember tonight?" the sleight-of-hand requested in a low voice so his girlfriend wouldn't hear through the door. "She's obviously in a, uh...emotionally volatile state a-at the moment and, um, I-I think it would be best if I talked her down by myself s-so we don't...aggravate her."

Lula blinked in disbelief. "Are you saying I would push her buttons?"

"No, no!" Jack denied in hopes of sparing Lula's feelings. "I-It's just that, well..."

"It would be like throwing a gasoline tanker truck on top of a forest fire," Merritt interrupted bluntly.

"B-But, come on, Ember's like the sister I never had!" Lula pleaded, clearly oblivious to the Irish girl's disdain for her. "I-I mean what if I just hide under the blankets in my bed while you two take the other one?"

Jack crossed his arms. "Could you promise to stay absolutely quiet and not interfere in any way, no matter what we say?"

Lula's lips pressed together into a thin line before she pivoted to face Merritt. "So, Mer-Bear, got room for one more in there?"

Jack mouthed a 'thank you' before he slipped inside the door on the right so he could snap his Irish firecracker out of this cold spell.

"Well as a gentleman, I, for one, believe that no lady deserves to sleep on the floor. Therefore, Lula, I am willing to surrender...half my bed to you," Merritt finished with a flirty wink.

Once again, Lula pensively chewed on her lips before whirling back around to rap on Jack and Ember's door. "Come on, guys! You won't even know I'm there! I'll duct tape my mouth and blindfold myself if that's what it takes!"

"Ooh, kinky," Merritt drawled with a pleased smirk.

Jack did quickly open the door. However, it was just for a moment...and it was just to drop a blanket and two pillows on the floor before hanging the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the handle. Lula slowly picked up the bedding and then raised her chin so Merritt could see her pouty eyes and sad frown.  
"I guess she really doesn't like having me around," the green-eyed girl lamented, her voice dripping with unshed tears.

"Ugh, fine, I'll take the floor," the balding magician surrendered. "But when I'm whining all week about my bad back, you all just remember you brought it on yourselves!"

Meanwhile, Jack found Ember sprawled out on the bed either sobbing into her pillow or punching it...or maybe both...but whatever it was involved a lot of creative Celtic cursing. The hazel-eyed boy sat down on the edge of the bed and gently rubbed his hand up and down Ember's back.  
"Emmie, I am so, so sorry," Jack murmured softly. "I know that there's nothing I can say or do-"

"You can invent a time machine and undo this mess," Ember offered, her voice muffled by her pillow.

"Baby, trust me, if I could take back everything Walter said, all those things he exposed about your past-"

Suddenly, Ember let out an almost feral shriek as she flung the pillow to the ground and spun around to face Jack.  
"It's not just about the invasion of privacy!" the blonde cried out, her cheeks stained from both her tears and her ruined stage makeup. "In fact, maybe he's right! Maybe I should go back to dancing for dollar bills because clearly I don't belong with such a talented group of magicians!"

"Em-" Jack tried to cut in, but Ember was already up on her feet and furiously pacing beside the bed.

"Hell, according to the legend, there should only be four Horsemen anyway, so what am I even doing here?!"

"You're playing a valuable role in taking down corrupt executives!"

"'Valuable'?!" Ember repeated, her lip curled in cynicism. "Based on everything Chase and Walter revealed in their bad guy monologues, my only role in this group is that of the immature screw-up! Think about it! If I hadn't insisted on taking you clubbing on Halloween, Walter's men wouldn't have tracked us down! If I hadn't broken down last month over Lula's lack of subtlety when rehearsing her performances or her lack of boundaries when it comes to my past, my flat, my boyfriend-"

"Wait, what?" Jack spoke up.

"If I hadn't let myself go off the rails about my new roommate, Merritt wouldn't have been so eager to answer the door to Chase, you and I would've paid attention to Merritt's zombie state and not handed over the laptop, and everything would've gone according to plan! Blimey, we would probably be at some Eye awards ceremony right now, receiving medals of magical honor for exposing Owen Case if I hadn't-"  
Ember suddenly found herself silenced by a passionate yet tender kiss from the man who stole her heart almost two years ago. When Jack finally pulled away, Ember gazed into those warm amber eyes. All of a sudden, all that guilt and self-loathing that had taken root in the pit of her stomach began to soften.

"And if you quit the group, there will only be three Horsemen left because I know the fourth wouldn't be able to perform without the woman who inspires his magic," Jack added as he cradled Ember's cheeks in his hands.

"Jack, you can't-"

"And while we're on the 'what if' game," the brunette boy continued, "if I hadn't taken so long to end that toxic relationship with Veronica, I wouldn't have missed out on so many opportunities to hold you in my arms, to kiss those soft lips, to see that beautiful smile when I tell you how much I love you..."  
As if on cue, the Irish girl smiled sweetly while her sapphire eyes regained a bit of their sparkle.  
"That's the one! Right there!" Jack teased as he playfully tapped Ember on the nose, which caused her to bite her bottom lip to contain her endearing giggle. "We all make mistakes, Emmie, and while you blame yourself for being oblivious to the fact that we had an evil midget mastermind sabotaging our mission, I blame myself for being oblivious to the fact that I was spending time trying to impress a nosy gold-digger when my perfect girl was already right beside me."

Ember smirked, but there was still a hint of bemusement in it. "Jack, while I admit that hearing you insult that bloody banshee you foolishly dated does cheer me up, that is not even remotely close to the mistakes I've made in the past few months."

"Oh right, because the fact that you are not omniscient and all-knowing is totally within your control," the pickpocket replied with a playful quirk of his eyebrow.

Ember opened her mouth to argue, but upon realizing she had been beat, she stared down at her hands as she chipped away at a loose speck of silver nail polish. "So...blame Merritt the mentalist instead?"

Jack chuckled, glad to see some of that Irish fire returning to his girlfriend's cheeks and jokes. "Or...maybe we just do whatever Walter the Weasel wants - or at least pretend to go along with it until Dylan saves us - and then you leave one of your famous ink bombs in his fridge as a parting gift?"

"Agreed" the blonde responded before sealing the deal with a kiss to Jack's cheek. "And I'm sorry about brushing you off earlier. I know you were trying to make me feel better, but I guess I was too busy beating myself up to let someone else try to heal me."

The pickpocket wrapped his arms around the pyrotechnician and drew her close. "As far as I'm concerned, that's all in the past now. In the meantime, how about we get some rest before Daniel comes in at dawn with a bugle?"

"Another good idea from Jackie boy," Ember chirped before she and her boyfriend began peeling off the costumes they had been wearing since yesterday.

"I seem to be full of them today," Jack commented in a playfully cocky tone as the two of them made themselves at home under the posh hotel blankets.

"And yet I thought the number one rule in a relationship is that the woman is always right," Ember murmured teasingly as she nuzzled up against Jack's chest, comforted by the steady beating of his heart.

"Technically, I think that rule only applies in a marriage," Jack corrected as he took Ember's hand in his own and tried to hide the way his eyes were automatically drawn to the emptiness of her left ring finger. "But, then again, I prefer the rule that a husband and wife should always love and respect each other, regardless of who is right or wrong."

"Well with a philosophy like that, whoever you end up marrying will be a very lucky woman," the fire-dancer responded with a soft smile before drifting off into dreamland.

Meanwhile, Jack glanced down at his jacket - or rather at the slight lump in his sleeve's hidden pocket - and grinned optimistically. "Trust me, I'll be the lucky one."

...

 **Woohoo, that's it for today! I hope this 8121 word chapter is long enough to make up for being almost three months late! I also hope that y'all take the time to follow, favorite, and/or review because I'm gonna be on my laptop every day for the next month (or at least until I have a new job) and I actually think I can circle back around to this story by then :D. Up next, we'll be taking a little trip to the world's oldest magic shop to learn a few new tricks!**


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